A Different Aincrad
by Kurumaru
Summary: Kirito just wanted to play SAO again, he didn't sign up for this. First he bumped into a chestnut haired girl who decided to follow him everywhere, then he was told if he died well he died. Life doesn't seem to like him all that much. AU version of the Aincrad arc and characters in general.
1. Chapter 1

**Yo. So I decided one day when I was really, really bored that I would try to write a SAO fanfiction. Don't ask why.**

**Anyways, Kirito might seem OP in the early game, but I'm going to put him through hell later so he'll kinda need it.**

**First fanfiction so I'd appreciate any real criticism.**

**Anyways,**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Sword Art Online**

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"Ikuze!" Kirito bellowed, before charging towards the boss himself. Most of the players that came with him were hit with renewed morale before they too dived headfirst into the menacing looking creature in front of them. Asuna herself kept beside Kirito the entire time that he charged down the hall. It was the ninety-ninth floor after all, she had to keep some kind of eye on her rather determined husband. Renewing her focus she shifted her gaze over to Kirito, and in that brief moment, they made eye contact, both nodding in silent agreement. They both had utmost confidence in each other after all the crap that they had been through.

The arena wasn't the conventional dark and doom that persisted throughout the previous floors, but opened up to the ruins of what must have once been a temple. There was a false sun in the sky along with some clouds as well, making the inside of the chamber seem like the outside. In the middle of the ruins stood the boss encased completely in stone. Slowly the expedition members began to tense at what was going to happen. Kirito was pretty sure that the boss was going to make an epic MMO-like entrance, it was the custom for many of the final bosses. I mean even Illfang the Kobold Lord got a dramatic entrance.

The first thing that moved was its jaw, which quickly gave way to the entire head of the beast. Just looking at it now, one could tell that it was draconic in nature. Its scales were the color of the fieriest rubies and also shone like them as well. Its eyes were molten pools of gold that surrounded the onyx slit in the center. The horns of the beast jutted behind the head, giving it an even more frightening appearance. The multitude of razor sharp teeth didn't help assuage any the raid members' worries as well. The beast gazed lazily towards the nearest player, Kirito in this case, with its head tilted upwards haughtily before letting out a small snort and resuming its epic appearance.

Suddenly, more rock gave away to the sheer power of its wings, blasting the stone everywhere. The members of the expedition covered their faces and closed their eyes against the baffling winds and pieces of stone that pelted them. More of the rock crumbled around the dragon, allowing for the players to see it in all of its glory. Beautifully deadly claws and talons adorned its wings and limbs, bulges from the sinew and muscles could be seen across the magnificent specimen. The underbelly was a very pale yellow, contrasting heavily with the scales. Its spine was adorned with deadly spikes made out of bone. They continued down the entire length of the bone before reaching the only part of the beast that was still covered in stone, the tail.

An earth shattering roar was unleashed against the members of the frontline. It was almost as if once could see the ripples that the beast made using his godly shout. Players attempted to steel themselves against the torrential winds that soon followed, a few of the weaker ones that weren't suited for melee combat began to falter and fly back, only to hit nothing even when they should've hit the wall or door. Quickly noticing this, it was then when Kirito understood what was going to happen. Unlike Illfang or Gleam Eyes, there was absolutely zero percent of any outside influence getting inside to help them, nor was it possible for any of those inside to even begin dreaming of returning outside. It was clear what Akihiko was planning for this stage. Al of the members were prey and the dragon was their oversized predator. Of course there was the slight problem of said prey having cockroach like characteristics, mainly the one of never dying.

The dragon kept roaring, the turbulence increasing dramatically with each passing second and it still was on its epic introduction. The health bars began to fill up one by one, however instead of four hanging onto its side, or the ten hanging off both like the previous boss that they encountered, there was simply one massive circle of health above the dragon's entire frame. Hovering in the center of the circle was a big fat 50x. Most of the member's morale dropped at that, seeing that they had to destroy that health bar fifty times over before the battle would finally end. Kirito easy calculated hundreds of millions of health points if it wasn't in the billions at this point.

Kirito took a moment to steel his resolve before taking one look at Asuna's frozen form. It seemed like the burden of the battle had gotten to her as well. Letting out a battle cry, the black haired swordsman rushed towards the gigantic beast just as it finished its introduction. The beast's AI seemed to have a condescending side to it, for it didn't even try to stop Kirito's sword slash to its leg. All of the members watched in nervousness as the boss's health bar seemed to just take a 3% chunk to the first level out of fifty. The beast in the meantime, decided that humoring the swordsman in front of it was a bad idea for the long run as it raised its front legs and leaned back slightly, gathering air in its lungs, before crouching and lowering its head to the level of the expedition members. It roared once again, this time using the severing air pressure that was accompanied by holding too much air inside its lungs.

Wordlessly, the tanks of the expedition made their way in front of everybody else and held their guard against the massive pressurized attack that the dragon used. It felt like they were going to go airborne at any second if the attack didn't let up. Their **Shield Skills** were helping tremendously with holding off the attack. Seeing that the attack was futile, the dragon let up the attack and stood in its default position once more. Black text once again would its way towards the health bar area as it took form and said, **Lyrroth, The Savior of Time**. It was the final battle, well second to final as the author decided that the second to last would be more epic than the final one. It would finish what started three years ago.

XXXXX Three Years Ago XXXXX

A bluish flash appeared in the center of the Town of Beginnings, accompanied with a small chime, signaling that a player had just logged in at that location. The avatar was no other than Kirito, known by the Beta testers as one of the, if not the best player during the two month testing period. He was known at the time on the server as exceptional with a sword and having the quickest reaction times ever seen. He could sense changes in this world faster than the 0.11 second limit in the real world. He could easily sense changes in a quarter of the time.

Kirito let out a content sigh. After a week or so of not being able to play, he was eager to restart his adventure in this world. Of course he was going to be the best player this time around, he wasn't going to have any questions on whether he was the top or was only one of the top. Kirito wasn't known in his time during the Beta as one to associate with others easily, in matter of fact he was probably as socially awkward as some of the people who lock themselves inside of their rooms during parties were. Many said that he had the emotional range of a toothpick with the only way of discerning his emotions being observing his eyebrow behavior. Forgetting whatever he was thinking about in Beta, he decided that it didn't matter anymore. He was going to become an infamous solo player, one that many people would die for to join a guild. He would clear all the floors of Aincrad by soloing and he would…

CRASH! THUD!

He fell unceremoniously on his bottom, thus ending his inner thoughts of becoming the best. Oh well it wasn't like he could daydream about it the entire day, he had levels to gain, quests to do and so much more, but for now he would check on what he crashed into. Looking up from the ground while simultaneously rubbing his sore behind, he saw a chestnut haired girl with amber eyes staring back at him. She was the definition of beautiful by any straight male's standards. Her face was perfectly heart shaped, her form curvaceous and his hair and eyes made her exotic looking. Although it might be a male, Kirito couldn't help but appreciate the girl's form.

Finally getting off his lazy ass, Kirito walked over to where the girl had fallen and stuck his hand out for the girl to grab onto. She graciously smiled and voiced her appreciation. Now standing at full height, he was able to see that she was around the same height as his avatar, looking around the same age as well. He was once again staring at her, taking in every detail once again. Now by no means was he a pervert, well he might be one, but he just didn't have enough contact with the opposite gender in his real life. Even in a game it was a bit nerve wracking for him to talk to a girl, even if it might have been a male in real life.

Kirito snapped back to focus in the real world when the chestnut haired beauty across from him poked him in the space between his eyes. A blush made its way onto his stoic features in the tiniest form out of embarrassment from being caught staring. He noticed when he was staring that her lips were moving, probably speaking but he was too out of it to get a single word. Even now he was just nodding dumbly at what the girl across from him was saying. It wasn't like him to get like this, all flustered and whatnot. He was supposed to play the act of cool indifference god damn it!

The girl, noticing that he was nodding like an idiot for a good half a minute straight let out a sigh at being ignored. "You didn't hear a word I just said didn't you?" Her voice was melodic as well, damn Kirito focus already. Get back into character. Despite all of the author's efforts into getting Kirito into speaking or making a coherent reply, he just simply nodded like an idiot again. The girl seeing this sighed in frustration as she flicked him in the forehead. Said action bringing the raven-haired protagonist back to the world of the living for the conversation.

"Stop ignoring me!" The girl said in frustration, getting a sheepish smile from Kirito and a hand rubbing the back of his head in an equally sheepish manner.

"Gomen, I was just lost in my own little world." The girl let out a little huff of indignation with a cute pout on her face. Kirito was once again entranced by her beauty but then snapped himself back into reality. Despite it not looking like much, that forehead flick hurt like hell!

"As I was saying, you looked like you knew where you were going when you ran into me, so I was wondering if I could accompany you." Kirito was shocked at the girl's statement. A pretty girl wanted to party with him, so it definitely was a guy in real life. But she could tell that he was a Beta tester just from his movement. He didn't see much trouble in going out of his way for a good two minutes so he shrugged.

"Sure I'll help you with the basics and then I'll leave." He said, thinking that the girl would be jumping for joy while yelling "Yatta!" would be the normal reaction, he was shocked when he saw that the girl was bending her knees so that she was a good three inches shorter than him now. Tears started to fill her eyes as said eyes began to widen and shine sadly. Kirito panicked, knowing the infamous technique from his real life sister Suguha when she desperately wanted something. It so far had a perfect success rate, something unfathomable to his mind that such an overpowered technique would exist in an MMORPG like this. I mean seriously what was Kayaba Akihiko thinking when he implemented the skill! Didn't he know the consequences of his actions!

"Can I just stway in your party pwease!" The girl said adorably. If Kirito was a female he would most definitely be shouting "Kawaii" while crushing the poor girl to death. Alas, due to his genetic status as a male, the result was simply his will being picked away slowly by the all mighty technique.

"Alright. You can stay as long as you like." Kirito said, he had lost once again to those puppy dog eyes, and it wasn't even from his sister this time! The girl upon hearing this, eyes returned to their normal size with all of the tears that had been there moment before had disappeared. Her cute pout was replaced with a infectious smile that even made Kirito smile - *gasp*.

"Yatta!" The girl squealed in excitement before hugging Kirito tightly. Even though it might have not been a real hug, it was still a warm sensation that he had never felt before. She also smelled nice too, even though she might have been a male. So then would that make him homosexual? He turned green at the thought of the pretty girl in front of him being male, granted he did attack a few extra accessories such as a beard and such.

Kirito sent the girl an invite than she quickly accepted. The male protagonist looked to the top left, trying to finally figure out the name of the girl in front of him. '_Asuna, huh. That's a pretty name.'_ Similar thoughts began to enter Kirito's mind again before his mental rant on the newly named Asuna ended with the thought, '_Gah she, he it? It's probably a male in real life.'_ Which brought another wave of slight depression and green face syndrome to the raven-haired teen.

Shaking his mind free from the disgusting thoughts on the thing beside him. Yes his mind had declared the girl an 'it' until he got a definite answer on the gender of the real life person. It would determine what pronoun Kirito would use from now on. He began to answer the girl's questions about the game in general while slowly walking them towards the gate to reach the hunting grounds. Sometimes she displayed amazing intuition about the system that only a veteran player would have, but sometimes she was as clueless as a clueless man watching pro streams of the newest release of Starcraft V.

Asuna on the other hand was enjoying the experience. It was almost like the man, who revealed that his name is Kirito, was a private tour guide for her. Every question about the system that she had, he answered enthusiastically while going into great detail about what he knew and personal experience said. She wasn't stupid by any means, she knew that Kirito must have been a Beta tester with the amount of knowledge he held on the details and mechanics behind the game. That or he was an overzealous nerd that hoarded any information possible while studying more than was possible for the game. But since he held a semi-normal conversation with her, minus the blatant staring of course, he was then a beta tester.

"Ne, Kirito so how do all of the stats work in the game?" It was down to the two major topics that dominated SAO during its beta, stats and skill levels. Asuna didn't know about the intricacies, simplicities and the occasional moronic background behind the uses of all the stats, so she wasn't bound to be ready for the explanation that Kirito was about to give. Rather she wasn't ready for the lecture from Kirito she was about to hear.

After taking a breath to think on how to begin, Kirito started his lecture, "Well Asuna, every time you level up in SAO you get five attribute points that you can put into one of the four out of five attributes that exist in the game. Well it's really three but I'll get there in a second." Asuna seemed confused at the last statement but nodded her head anyway.

"The first attribute in the game is strength. It's like the conventional strength that exists in almost every MMORPG. Leveling it up allows you to equip heavier armors such as platemail, but also slows down your movement speed in the long run. It increases damage dealt by all blunt and two handed weapons. One handed swords being the exception. It also allows you to equip more things at once, like using a greatsword in one hand and such.

"The next stat is agility. It's basically the opposite of strength in this game. It increases your recovery time after you use a skill, so it's really useful for people like me who use fast combos to defeat monsters instead of one attack to crush them. It also increases your attack speed slightly while also increasing your critical strike chance by a small amount as well. Leveling agility is the only way to increase the damage output from one handed sword or ranged weapons. People who level this usually have leather or cloth armors on." Asuna nodded, thinking that it was also going to be her main stat much like Kirito.

"The final real stat that you can put points into is willpower, which is pretty much a much better version of other game's vitality. It does everything that Vitality does in other games like increasing your HP and HP-regeneration, but it also decreases the amount of time that statuses affect you so things like poison, paralysis and blindness aren't as affective. It also increases your defense slightly as well increases your resistance to enemy critical strikes. It sounds overpowered but it's much less potent than other stats.

"The last two stats are things that you shouldn't really bother with. The first is intelligence which is pretty much Akihiko trolling us from the real world. It doesn't do anything except inflate your ego and make you try to be smart. It was introduced as a gimmick and that the player's base intelligence represents your intelligence in comparison to other players. So basically never touch it." He swore he saw Asuna deadpan and mutter something that sounded like, '_Lazy ass developers._'

"The other attribute is luck. Every player in the game has one luck which means they aren't luckier than anyone else and have default col and drop rates. Enhancing and enchanting also depend on your luck as well. Beta players might have five luck but in reality that raises their chances by a factor around 1.4x. Not even the beta testers managed to find a way to increase the amount of luck that you can have, so just assume that it's going to stay that way forever. It just there to say thank you to the beta players." Asuna nodded in understanding. They really weren't getting much of an advantage especially in the later stages in the game where things would only drop half a percent of the time.

"Alright Asuna. We're here at the Town of Beginning's hunting grounds. They are only level one so they really aren't that much of a challenge." She nodded nervously at his statement. Even though he said that they were the most basic of monsters, she still hadn't ever used the nerve gear, rather playing other desktop based MMORPGs. Luckily she had Kirito there to help her along the way. She was really grateful for his presence now.

"Ne, Kirito. Can you just go first and show me how to do it?" Asuna asked shyly as she shifted her feet around and clasped her hands behind her back all the while the ground suddenly became more interesting than anything else for her. Kirito was shocked by the cuteness that she was showing right now, it was definitely illegal to be that cute in over nine countries. It was just a crime!

"Hai Asuna. I'll just go first and explain things to you along the way." Kirito said with a small smile, he felt as though he should unlock a new achievement for showing so much emotion. The girl smiled appreciatively before saying a small 'arigatou' for his troubles. She turned her gaze into one that was more focused, one that she reserved for some serious things.

"Now Asuna." She perked up at the mention of her name. "The game is all about the variety of **Sword Skills** there are. All you have to do until you can hit them by yourself, is use the right starting motion. One of my skills is called **Vertical **so I just have to ready up the skill like this." Asuna saw the small iron shortsword in Kirito's hand glow a deep shade of blue before he swung it and struck the monster boar, one-shotting it and sending it to oblivion via shards of bluish-green glass that shattered to reveal the spoils of battle. He remembered that the first level of SAO was just for show and that the experience requirement to level up was just a measly ten, enough give from one boar. He was met with a small congratulations on his UI and the sight of a cheery Asuna.

"Wah Kirito. That was so cool. Also congratulations for leveling up." Kirito let out a small smile before walking over to the waiting Asuna. Normally he would be hesitant to reveal his stats to other people as there was a chance he would garner unwanted attention, but something in him told him that Asuna would be okay. Maybe it was because she would be staying with him for a while? Yeah he would just tell her that as an excuse.

"Ne, Asuna. I was thinking that since we're going to travel so much together that you might as well see my stats." Asuna smile brightened even more if it was possible. It was almost as if it would melt the heart of any straight man. She having played former MMORPGs understood the significance of Kirito wanting to share his stats with her. It was because there was some kind of trust that he had place in her. She didn't know why he trusted her, but she wouldn't betray it. Like some other people. With that in mind. She walked over to the side of the now motionless Kirito as he swiped down to reveal the UI for character stats and skills.

**Name – Kirito**

**Level – 2**

**HP - 342**

**Strength – 20**

**Agility – 35(+5)**

**Willpower – 15**

**Integilence – 20**

**Luck – 100(+95)**

"EHHHHHHH" Birds and animals that were peacefully resting in various trees all ran or flew away at the sound of the two teens yelling at the top of their lung. Kirito was also sure that a few boars ran away from the disturbance. Kirito just stared dumbly at the screen of information in front of him. He knew that he would have five luck, I mean he was a beta tester. But one hundred luck is ridiculous, it is just stupid even. All stats in SAO are used in calculations exponentially, so one hundred luck is easily fifty times as lucky those with five luck. Asuna was in a similar train of thought though hers was less complex due to not knowing how things are calculated. All that she saw was one hundred luck compared to one or five and she knew she had found the proverbial jackpot.

She turned eerily over to Kirito while a dark aura was slowly manifesting itself around the chestnut haired beauty. "Ne, Kirito-kun. You wouldn't have any complaints about me being in your party now would you?" Her face was still adorned with a smile but it felt so vile and wrong. It was way too sickly sweet and then he remembered when he saw the same things in his sister Suguha. She would always do this when she was pissed off that he had said some embarrassing lie about her in front of her friends. It was an equally potent skill that all females could use. The infamous dark aura.

'_Kami-sama, why do you hate me so much?!_' Kirito mentally raged at how the developer for SAO could leave the two deadliest skills in the known world available in a game. Suppressing his mental rage for a second he turned back to the still sickly sweet Asuna and quickly put his hand up in his front of his chest in a 'okay, okay' motion. "Of course Asuna, I would never go anywhere without you." He said meekly while trying to stop the horrible aura from existing.

"Good." She said before the smile and aura disappeared, allowing Kirito to breathe normally once again. "I guess it's my turn to level up now."

Asuna drew her rapier out from its sheath before it started to glow a pale shade of yellow. She thrust it outward to use the skill called **Linear** to main to poor defenseless level 1 boar. Kirito could only stare at her motion. She – or it – was far faster and flexible than Kirito was, and he was even an agility based player. She received significantly less Col than Kirito had and turned back to him with a smile on her face. She had just killed her first monster. A few moments later, a small message appeared saying congratulations appeared. She stood next to Kirito once more when he adopted a confused expression on his face.

Seeing his confused look, she decided to explain, "You shared your secrets with me, so it's only natural that I share mine with you." Kirito's neutral expression turned into a small smile as a result of Asuna. It seemed that she could get the most emotional reactions out of the usually stoic teenager, even if it was only the smallest of smiles. She too navigated the UI before finding her character stats and skills

**Name – Asuna**

**Level – 2**

**HP - 336**

**Strength – 17**

**Agility – 38(+5)**

**Willpower – 15**

**Intelligence – 22**

**Luck – 1**

Before the two were able to do anything else, they suddenly heard the chime of a bell far away, probably in the Town of Beginning's plaza. They just shared confused expression and words of shock before both of them glowed blue and began to teleport away. Kirito quickly deduced that it was a forced teleport and that only a GM could have done it. So it practically begged the question of why.

The sky quickly turned red from the sunset's brilliant shades of gold and maroon. Small hexangular polygons created a dome around the plaza where no one could get in or out. A few of the hexagons had the word warning flashing on and off in their centers. It was just all suspicious. Why would the GM make all of the people who just purchased the game nervous? Kirito's eyes widened when he felt something enter his hand. Looking to his right, he noticed that it was Asuna's hand that made its way into his. She looked even more nervous and anxious than the rest of the people. '_Must have something to do with not dealing well with horror._'

All of the sudden, some red liquid that was most definitely not blood began to leak from the dome's ceiling, forming a red cloak and hood like apparition that floated there as if judging them. Its hood covered the face of the wraith like creation, but even without it, Kirito doubted that there would be a face underneath it. In matter of fact, it didn't seem to have any body parts, it was just a cloak that was floating there.

"Greetings players, I welcome you to my world." Asuna's hand tightened its grip around Kirito's. She didn't exactly react the best to horror or things like it. "My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world."

Kirito's body tensed. He knew that name, after all how couldn't he after the numerous things he had heard and read after the famed creator of the very game that they were currently playing. He was a genius in quantum physics, a master of programming. He had always stood behind the scenes though, never revealing himself. So why would he right now?

"I think most of you have discovered the fact that the Log Out button has disappeared from the Main Menu. This is not a bug, it's all a part of Sword Art Online's system." Both Kirito and Asuna quickly brought down their UIs and true to his word, there were no log out buttons. Asuna tensed, her family would be worried sick about her and there was nothing she could do to soothe them, she might as well be in a coma.

'Until you get to the top of this castle, you cannot log out of your own free will. Also, the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these things are attempted…" He let the tension build for a while. Oh what a sadistic bastard the guy was. Kirito and Asuna both gulped audibly as well as most of the players in the plaza. "The signal sensors in your Nerve Gears will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all of your basic functions."

Asuna turned her head to Kirito as he slowly did the same both starring into each other's eyes in shock. Her eyes told him that she didn't want to believe this or any of this was happening. Some guy with red hair and a headband tied around it shouted about the possibilities of a power outage, something that caught the interest of both of the players. Kayaba started explaining as if he could hear the man.

"To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gears. The result is that regretfully 213 players have already exited this game and the real world forever." Kirito stumbled backwards, somehow managing to stand on his weak knees. Asuna tightened the grip on his hand even more while raising the other to cover her mouth as her eyes began to water.

"Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies that you have left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and internet media are all repeatedly reporting this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gears taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax and concentrate on beating the game."

Something in Kirito then snapped. It was bad enough that he couldn't log out with conventional means, but now the bastard expects them to play around. "What! What are you saying!? Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!?" He kept shouting and glaring at the red robe that represented Kayaba. "This isn't a game anymore!"

The monotonous voice continued once again, "But I ask of you all to understand that Sword Art Online is no longer a simple game. It is a second reality. From now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment that your HP reaches 0, your avatar will be gone forever, and at the same time your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear." Kirito began to chuckle mirthlessly at his situation, others around him were looking on with concern, especially Asuna. Although they couldn't particularly blame him and his reaction.

"Players, there is only one way to be freed from this game, as I have said before you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word." Many of the players in the plaza were still shocked, either denying it saying that it was a cruel opening event or just frozen from it.

"I shall show you the evidence that this is now reality. In your inventories there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this." As soon as he said this the plaza was filled with people bringing their thumb and finger down and the chime of bells. Both Asuna and Kirito stared at the item, if the situation wasn't so serious at the moment, they would surely be deadpanning right now. Everybody tapped the make into object button. Kirito and Asuna both shared a look before clicking the button as well. All it did was create a small rectangular mirror in their hands.

Eyeing it carefully, Kirito couldn't see any difference, it was just the avatar that he spent a painful amount of time making. Looking at Asuna, he could tell that she was equally confused as well. That was until it changed to shock as they were both engulfed in white light, yet their hands had yet to separate.

As the light died down, Kirito looked around only to see many of the people around had changed. He stared back into the mirror and raised it hurriedly before it disappeared from lack of durability. Gone was the warrior face and body that the avatar had, instead was black hair that laid neatly over the head, two weak looking eyes that could be seen beneath the slightly long hair, and a delicate face that made people mistake me for a girl. He looked back over to where Asuna was standing half expecting a middle-age man to appear out of nowhere, but instead he saw her perfect features all over again, except her hair was waist length instead of middle back. '_I lucked out so much_' was the advanced thought process of Kirito.

Asuna could tell it was Kirito, mainly because he was still holding her hand. He was a good inch shorter than her now so he was probably a year younger than her. He looked so feminine to her eyes but that didn't really change her opinion of him. He had still helped her out in the beginning so hey, he was still the same guy. Although a bit more girly.

Before she could even comment on his new appearance, Kirito quickly led her out of the recently liberated plaza and down on of the winding streets that led to a gate leading out of the town. Reaching just out of hearing and sight range of many of the other players, Kirito quickly pulled out his map before trying to get Asuna's attention

"Ne, Asuna?" Said chestnut haired girl looked up to meet his eyes. "I was thinking, since the guy just said that we won't get home until we clear the game, then maybe we could go together over to the next town. I mean all the fields here will be overcrowded and there are a few decent quests that I know are there."

The downcast girl's demeanor did a complete 180 from what it was beforehand. She was so cheerful and lively, now it seemed like she was prepared to give up all hope of ever escaping. She refused to meet Kirito's eyes after he finished his explanation, finding the floor infinitely more interesting. Why was he trying so hard even after Kayaba practically gave them their death sentence?

"Why?" The response garnered a confused look on the effeminate male's visage. "Why are you trying so hard?"

"W-what do you mean, Asuna?"

"There's no point in trying. We're all going to die!"

"Asuna…" Now Kirito was really worried. The look in her eyes matched some of the ones that he saw in the plaza. The eyes of someone who was truly giving up.

"It doesn't matter does it? As long as I die without losing myself I should be happy right? After all no one else would seem to care."

Kirito gritted his teeth in slight anger. He hated those who gave up and yielded to harsh circumstances, granted that the girl and countless others have just been told that they are in a death game so he could sympathize some amount.

"I care."

Asuna's eyes immediately darted upwards to see the resolute features of Kirito. His eyes weren't showing the weakness and depression that many others were at the time, rather they were determined. There was this atmosphere around him that made others want to believe in him, his eyes were all he needed to covey his beliefs. They didn't hold any doubt or hesitation about his choices. Asuna could only stare at his features, the two words that he had just spoken resounded deeply in her mind.

"There are plenty of others that care as well, Asuna. You still have to get back to your real family, your parent are probably worried sick. So if you're not fighting for your own sake, then fight for theirs, ne?"

Kirito knew that it was usually taboo in MMOs to talk about the real life and their problems, it simply brought unnecessary drama and other unneeded things into the atmosphere, yet he continued anyways. It might strike a chord with the girl and get some kind of positive reaction from her.

"I have a little sister in real life too," Kirito began. "Our parents are really busy with our mom working what seems like 24/7 and our dad always overseas, so it's usually up to me to care for her. I'm not just fighting for myself, Asuna. I'm going to clear this game so that I can see her again, apologize for being gone for so long, and then become the older brother that I was."

Asuna's countenance began to brighten ever so slightly. A small smile made its way onto her beautiful features. She could finally look into Kirito's eyes for more than a minute before looking away. Said male protagonist saw the traces of hope and determination starting to take root in her eyes.

"You better take care of me then." Asuna said, most of her depression was gone. A small portion of her still wanted to give up, though it was easily overshadowed by her newfound conviction.

"Of course, I already told I would help you until you said enough right? Besides I would feel more confident having a pretty girl watching my back." Kirito said, deciding to add a little playful ending to it.

Asuna's cheeks blushed a pretty shade of pink, while she adverted her eyes slightly from Kirito. Sure she had been called beautiful and gorgeous by many other boys in real life and in MMOs, but for some reason, Kirito's teasing managed to bring out her shy side. She 'Hmph'ed before crossing her arms under her chest and pouting slightly.

Kirito chucked at the sight of all of her previous depression leaving her. It seemed like his words had worked after all. There was a long road ahead of them, but at least this time he wouldn't have to travel it alone. He looked over to Asuna after his brief reflection and saw that nothing but determination and a little bit of something else that he swore he saw before in her eyes. None of that depression was there. She smiled and nodded, before coming up to Kirito's side as they both ran towards the next village.

XXXXX Rosemary Village XXXXX

Kirito and Asuna let out a sigh of relief as they finally saw that the village was in sight. It was a simple and small village, typical for one of those that were found near the beginning of an MMO with the typical homey name attached to it. Rosemary Village was what it was called and Kirito was certain that the quest that they would receive would be somewhere along the southern area of town.

Their travel to the town was rather uneventful with the minor exception of a few trash mobs that decided to get in their way. Needless to say, they were quickly butchered. Both of the players had leveled up to four along the way, with the reason being around fifty of said wolves.

Kirito was surprised by Asuna's speed which easily put his to shame. It wasn't to say that he was slow, it was just that Asuna was so damn fast. Combined with her weapon of choice, the rapier. It was scary. Kirito found various crystals after he slaughtered the wolves in his way. With his luck they dropped like they were going out of style even though they were supposed to be incredibly rare. He only kept the ones that increased the amount of critical damage he dealt, seeing as it was going to become the only kind of damage he dealt soon. He just needed a decent enough weapon that would be able to socket and the quest that he was going to do with Asuna was going to give them both decent starting items.

Both of them made their way to a small cottage in the village and found a woman with a golden question mark above her head, denoting that she had a quest for them. Apparently her daughter was gravely ill and no doctor could cure said illness. Only the flower on top of a Little Nepent, the Little Nepent's Ovule, would be able to cure her ailment.

After hearing it twice due to it being a solo quest, Kirito led them to the forest that was outside the village. They searched for said monsters before they found a couple of weird, ugly plant like things with insanely huge red lips. Both Kirito and Asuna unsheathed their weapons before falling into their own weapon stances.

"Ne, Asuna. Don't push yourself too far. You can't die here right now."

"B-baka." Asuna felt a slight heat in her cheeks with the concern in his voice.

Kirito took off from where they were first, using his **Sonic Leap** to close the gap between him and one of the weird plant like creatures before sending it into oblivion with the thrust part of the skill. The recovery time for the skill was reduced slightly from the effects his agility had on his stats, so he was able to avoid another one of the creature's assault.

He could say confidently that twenty of them held no challenge to him even at his current level with his pitiful items.

Ducking below a tentacle swipe from one of the mobs, he readied a **Horizontal** to sever the main body from the legs and ultimately kill the creature. The swing made contact and the plant made a horrible shriek of pain before the two halves fell to the ground. It was too much longer until the legs of the creature disappeared and the body soon followed after, but there wasn't any time to ponder abut that particular monster anymore.

Already, two more had taken its place in the battle. Kirito simply maintained his usual calm façade and prepared himself to counterattack. Parrying a tentacle slap he chopped off the appendage in his counterattack as he used **Slant** to bisect the creature's partner diagonally, allowing both halves to disappear into shards of blue glass. The original with just one of its leafy tentacles left could do nothing as it was met with a simple **Vertical**, bisecting it as well.

There still wasn't a mob with a flower on its head in sight. The only thing that Kirito could do at the moment was continue mowing down the trash mobs and then wait for the slightly more challenging one with a flower on its head.

He fought like a seasoned warrior. His movements and techniques that he learned from kendo and other forms of swordplay made their presence known in his dance of death. He wasn't simply moving side to side, parrying and cutting the opposition. He was seemingly flowing and deftly decimating the monster's population. It was almost like real life. All of his hard work in dealing with his overbearing grandfather and his hatred of kendo had finally paid off.

He had thought about quitting a multitude of times, but he could safely say that the only reason why he didn't quit was that it wouldn't feel right if he left Suguha alone again. Last year he qualified for nationals and placed fourth when he lost during the semi-final. That was using the traditional two-handed style of course. In secret, Kirito was practicing wielding the bamboo rods with both hands. Originally his left arm's coordination was awful, barely passable for a sword strike, but with persistence it was at the level he was now, practically ambidextrous.

He sidestepped to the right before unleashing another **Horizontal** on the monster and then quickly preparing a **Slant** while turning around to deal with the one behind him. The instant that the blue shards of glass dispersed, he could see the object of his current desires. On the head of twoLittle Nepents was a red flower. Using another **Sonic Leap** to pierce two ordinary plant creatures that were merely in his way to the flower bearers. The blue shards of glass shattered and were blown into the wind as he prepared for his assault on the two harder versions of the trash mobs he had just encountered.

Unlike the previous monsters, the two in front of him had significantly improved AI and didn't blindly charge the player in hopes of landing a hit. Two of them could actually work as a team and take him down. Still Kirito was confident that wouldn't happen and readied himself against the two plants in front of him.

Initiating the fight again with another **Sonic Leap**, Kirito lunged his blade towards the center of the creature's body before it managed to move enough so that the damage to it wouldn't be lethal. The plant hissed in pain before stabbing its tentacles to the player's side making Kirito dodge for he couldn't move his sword fast enough. Soon enough, the teamwork of the two creatures was making itself known with the combined assault that the four appendages managed to create.

When he was able to finally parry one strike, another would come attempting to blindside him, and thus causing him to lose his opportunity for a counter attack. It fell into a rhythm of biding his time and waiting for the tiniest of opportunities to present itself. The durability on his starting sword was starting to become lower and lower, almost to a third of the original. He was silently cursing at how pitiful his current sword was until he saw the briefest glimmer of opportunity.

The AI had tried to change it up so that both of the creatures attack him at the same time from opposite sides. A foolish idea for Kirito simply ducked below the assault as he heard a deafening crack from the two appendages smacking each other. The raven haired teen performed a slash that managed to cleave a few root like legs off of one of the creatures. It simply shrieked in pain before doubling over and falling onto its main body unceremoniously. Taking his attention away from the incapacitated monster, Kirito refocused his attention on the other Little Nepent.

Using another **Sonic Leap**, he once again closed the distance between him and the creature before attempting a lunge. Much like before it shifted slightly to his left as the blade plunged into its body in a non-vital area, dealing significantly less damage to it. Knowing the follow up that the AI would choose, he dodged the stab by ducking this time as he used his current strength to drag the blade through the abdomen of the creature, creating a large, uneven red gash in the center of the monster. Kirito readied another **Slant **before bisecting the creature once again. One on one, they weren't much harder than the normal creatures he had decimated.

Chopping off the flower from the top of the Little Nepent's head before it dissipated, he walked over to the still downed form of the other plant that tried to attack him. He raised his sword to perform another vertical to bisect it. As the blade finished glowing red, he swung down ferociously but noticed that something was terribly wrong with the scene in front of him. Sure the plant like thing was bisected and dissolving into pretty shards of glass. But the top of his head didn't have a flower. Instead was the form of a recently cut fruit from his vertical.

XXXXX With Asuna XXXXX

Asuna watched Kirito use his **Sonic Leap** to destroy one of the monsters. She wasn't able to see any more after than due to the amount that surrounded him, forming a small perimeter. She too was met with the same plant like things albeit much less due to her not brazenly charging into their nest. She readied her rapier before closing her eyes for one final thought.

'_Stay safe, Kirito-kun.'_

Her rapier glowed a soft gold as she lunged out with her **Linear** skill. The result was extremely satisfactory to say the least. With her incredible speed, she was able to hit the vitals of the plant monster perfectly. A small circle hat was missing from the creature had the edges of it turn to glass before it slowly expanded, encompassing the entire monster and turning it into fine powder.

Sensing that another one of the plants was about to attack, she quickly turned around with her rapier glowing once again. This time she slashed with the weapon, using the skill called **Swipe** to cleanly bisect her opponent. Turning her attention to the growing number of opponents in front of her. She steeled her resolve before charging into the middle of currently three Little Nepents.

Her form was much more graceful than that of Kirito's with her being much more flexible. It allowed her to easily weave between the clumsy and slow attack the plant things were trying. It if was possible, she felt that the AI was getting frustrated as she saw the attacks get slightly faster but overall more predictable and easily countered. Soon enough an opening to finish all three of the enemies was found by her calculative eyes.

Dodging a tentacle that had just tabbed into the ground, she leaped up onto the appendage, before using her grace to land on the strange creature's head. She stabbed her rapier through the back of the creature's mouth before slash her way out, causing the creature to explode in shards of glass. She didn't waste any time until she found another and did a similar action once again causing the plant to disappear forever. The third one wasn't in leaping range, so she settled for a **Linear** to finish the job. Once again, a small hole was in the creature's vitals as it didn't even get to shriek in pain before dispelling.

Asuna, letting out a sigh of relief, looked over her shoulders to see that there was one of the creatures that Kirito said would give them what they needed. A red colored flower rested on top of the Little Nepent's head, making it a target for Asuna who simply beelined towards it. All of the ordinary mobs met their doom if they tried to interfere with the charge courtesy of a **Linear** or two. The target of her charge was unsuspecting so it freely took another one of the deadly jabs to its side. It shrieked in pain as it turned around to attack the chestnut haired beauty.

It was a simple enough fight. It was barbaric and stupid like most of its brethren. The AI couldn't even take advantage of numbers due to there being only one non-suicidal plant creature there. All of the regular Little Nepents that interfered with the fight met their untimely ends with a single slash of Asuna's rapier. The target was currently trying to retreat, knowing the disadvantage it possessed in its current situation.

Unfortunately it was met with a single strike that pierced its model. It promptly disappeared into glass, allowing Asuna to cut the flower from the top of its head which soon followed. She looked over the area in an attempt to find Kirito. She sniffed the air and noticed an odd smell. It was sweet smelling yet foul at the same time, a truly strange combination. She found Kirito staring wide eyed at a downed form of a plant creature. She made her way over to the still shocked boy.

"Kirito-kun! I have my flower so we can get out of here now right?" Asuna asked, still oblivious to the severity of the situation. Kirito snapped out of his stupor before he grabbed Asuna's wrist and quickly started to run away…in the opposite direction of where he was supposed to go. What an idiot.

"No time to talk Asuna, we gotta get out of here." Kirito stated before returning his attention to running the hell away.

When he finally realized that he was running in the wrong direction, he stopped abruptly. He scanned his surrounding in an attempt to determine their location. Luckily for them, they were still in a section that he already mapped out. A confused look fell on Asuna's features when they suddenly stopped. A very cute expression when she tilted her head slightly.

"Kirito-kun, where are we?" The girl asked, truly not sure of how deep into the forest they were.

"Hehe, sorry Asuna. We just had to get out of there. I may have activated a trap on accident." The boy put a nervous smile and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

Asuna's eye twitched when she heard this. This idiot in front of her told her to be careful and not overexert herself and then abandons all sense of care himself.

"Baka!" Asuna yelled before bonking the top of Kirito's head, leaving a comically sized bump on his head. Oh if she didn't like that wait until she heard the other part

"Umm…" He began nervously before trying to drop it but Asuna's expression made no room for negotiation as he began to sweat. "I also may have run in the wrong direction so we're going to have to go back through there."

As soon as he finished that, there was a good second of nothing happening before Kirito was soaring into a tree. He twitched slightly after he was buried into the trunk. As he pulled himself out of the tree his two thoughts were, '_Ok, maybe I deserved that. Holy shit, am I turning into a masochist?! NO! I didn't deserve that much pain!'_ and _'what the hell is her strength stat?!'_

Ending the comical scene was a brief chime of bell, the sound of a notification.

"New quest received?" Kirito asked to no one in particular. Judging by Asuna's confused face, it was easy to tell that she was equally confused.

The quest was called, the source of confusion, a really ironic name for the current situation. It was almost as if Kayaba was trolling them again. The rewards for the quest were insane, a full suit of armor that was as enchant able as the sword that was the reward for their current one. The only condition was to kill a mob called Taogral, The Sentinel, a boss mob according to the quest information. Just as Asuna and Kirito finished reading the information the quest gave, they heard a dull thud against the forest floor with many snaps accompanying it.

Looking around at the scene, Kirito's eyes widened at the damage caused. No longer were they in the middle of a forest, but rather in the center of a fresh new clearing. Asuna seemed to be in the same state of bewilderment as they both shared a brief look before Kirito caught something move in the corner of his eye.

At the edge of the new clearing, stood a moss covered stone golem. Stone that was elegantly carved with intricate runes and script were covered with moss that came with prolonged exposure to the dampness of the forest. Blue energy seemed to hold the entire construct together and was visible where there was no stone covering it. It was human in shape, having flat slabs for feet, capable of crushing while its arms, which were made for smashing and sweeping, were handless and thus fingerless. It didn't have a head made of stone, but rather a sphere of the blue stuff holding it together was where it was supposed to be. Its chest was cracked heavily on the left side of the chest, where the heart was supposed to be. There was something shining in the crack, but Kirito was too far away to determine what it was.

Two health bars rose from nothing and began to fill up as its name and title adorned the top of them. Taogral, The Sentinel was in thick white letters, easily seen by any brain dead person. Both Kirito and Asuna gulped at the golem in front of them. They could only hope that its movements were slow and predictable or else they would surely be dead. A barrier could be seen erecting itself around the clearing perimeter to keep anyone from getting in, or more importantly, out.

"Ready Asuna?" A small nod from the chestnut haired girl answered his question. "Be careful alright."

A small smack his the back of his head as he chuckled sheepishly at her deadpan expression before refocusing on the boss monster in front of him. He tensed for a moment before activating his **Sonic Leap** to close in the distance. Instead of thrusting this time, he swung diagonally on a piece of stone, hearing an empty clang for his efforts. He looked at the boss's total HP and saw that it didn't even take one point of damage.

_'So the blue energy areas are its weakness.'_ The golem performed a lazy smash on the ground with its right arm, cracking the ground heavily. It would surely be game over if he was hit with that. Luckily, it seemed that the boss was super slow and very predictable. He turned towards his party member. "Asuna! Aim for the blue parts! It's the only way we can damage him without hammers or stuff like that!"

The girl was already behind the golem when she heard Kirito's advice. She narrowed her eyes at the shoulder of the golem, seeing a surge of blue energy there, she readied her skill, **Linear**. The rapier glowed gold and was thirsted directly into the shoulder of the stone construct causing it to roar wildly in pain. The arm was sliced off surprisingly easily for a piece of stone but they paid it no attention until it cracked halfway down, revealing whitish crystals underneath the stone. The arm disappeared, or rather the stone parts of it, leaving the crystal and ore behind as loot for the taking.

Kirito was already thinking and trying to remember what they were until he finally remembered. Those crystals and ore were easily mid-tier ingredients, things that shouldn't be found until floor 50. They were used to create powerful equipment at these floors that were easily overpowered at this point. So he quickly changed his plans. Asuna landed right beside him after the devastating blow to the golem, it took away a quarter of his first bar of HP.

"Change of plans Asuna." She listened, thinking it was probably because of the introduction of the crystals they saw. "We're going to break that golem apart."

Asuna's eyes widened at the prospect, Kirito's sword didn't do anything to the thing unless that kind of interaction was planned. She noticed that he aimed for a spot that was outlined with a crack when he first went forward with his skill. So maybe that was it. She nodded in understanding, seeing the smirk on Kirito's face that was a message for, '_I knew you could figure it out._'

She watched as the reckless male protagonist charged at the golem once again, this time slash away at the cracks around its left arm, making it crumble and revealing the white crystalline ore underneath. Asuna then sprang into action, this time cutting them limb off from where the elbow would be on the construct, making more glass flutter in the wind. The deposit of ore fell to the ground with a thump and sat there, waiting for the battle to conclude so that the new owners could pick it up. A dull roar of pain came from the golem again, wailing about how it practically lost almost all forms of attack.

Kirito used the opportunity to slash at the cracks around the knees, destroying the rubble covering them and revealing the ore underneath which Asuna promptly collected by severing the limbs. While the boss fight might have been hard as a solo player, having Asuna around made the massive golem seem like a pushover.

With no limbs available to move itself, the golem fell pitifully to the ground, surrounded by the crystals that dropped from it. Kirito came up and was determined to bring the finishing blow. The boss was barely alive at this point, and since it couldn't bleed, someone had to deliver the final strike. Kirito's iron sword glowed gold as he prepared his **Lunge**, a skill that he never particularly liked. It struck true and right where the crack on the golem's chest originated. The golem roared for the final time, sounding more painful than the other times. The entire chest turned into the special ore that they saw, but there was an odd black sheath stuck in it. Kirito pulled the sword out of its crystalline prison.

It was definitely a longsword that was for certain. It was slightly heavier than what he was used to, but it was still a good weight to grow into with his ever increasing strength. He took the blade out of its sheathe and was temporarily blinded by the blade itself. It was a silverfish white at the edges of the blade where it was the sharpest, but was a strange glowing pure white everywhere else. Besides the blade, it was jet black, fitting perfectly with the color scheme of the sheathe it came with. He quickly used his inspect skill on it, it wasn't that high but it could inspect anything that dropped for the player.

Shirokou – White Steel

'Forged by legendary smiths for three months straight, it is said that the sword was their best creation. However, it was lost two days after its creation, never to be found again.'

Material – Diamantite

Quality – 0/7 - Legendary

Durability – 1/10000

Damage – 157

Crit Chance – 22%

Strength – (+12)

Agility – (+18)

Enhancements – 0/10

Enchantments – 0/1

Item for next quality level - Diamantine Ingot x 2

'Due to being lost for so long, the blade has not been kept well, by adding certain materials to it, the quality can be upped seven times to further increase the base stats as well as add certain effects'

After reading the description, he quickly stowed the weapon in his inventory, not wanting to even breathe on it in case it were to fall apart. After letting out a sigh of relief he turned around to see Asuna hovering right over his shoulder. He did the elegant thing of freaking out by jumping backwards before calming his racing heart. Asuna just giggled at him the entire time before turning to him with a smile.

"Congratulations, Kirito-kun." She said wholeheartedly. She didn't care that she didn't get it. It wouldn't have been any use that way. She didn't have enough strength to properly wield the heavy weapon he used. She turned to collected all of the remaining ore that he had missed. It didn't matter who got it since they already agreed on sharing their materials. "You deserved it."

Kirito just stared at the girl in front of him. Truth be told, he actually was enjoying his time around her. She wasn't one of those that were scared to take action. She was kind and strong at the same time. She didn't seem to be the jealous type either, but rather supportive of his luck in obtaining the weapon. He watched Asuna as she went around to collect any other spoils of their battle until a small ding made their ways onto their UIs. The system decided that they were finally out of combat so they were allowed to see the results of their battles.

Both of them had leveled up four times, apparently the golem boss was level 7 and supposed to take hours to clear if you didn't figure out the weakness. It also helped that the quest was turned in automatically and gave them a hefty amount of EXP. Kirito immediately put all of his stat points into his agility, leaving his strength along and only raise it when he needed to. He looked over at the scene that held all the items that they received from their adventure in the forest. It wasn't even the second day and he already felt a year older.

Checking with Asuna, they had gained a total sum of around 300 thousand Col, an astounding amount. With Kirito's luck nearly increasing their rewards by ten times the amount money wise, the amount of items were staggering as well, though the only thing that Kirito cared for were the 56 Enhancement Crystals, and 43 Diamantine Ore. It would probably be a while before any of the blacksmiths could even try to smith the mid-tier ore. So it was likely that his weapon of choice would stay the same for a while. It was fine for him though, it had the stats of a weapon found in the floors around forty.

"Ne, Asuna." The girl turned her head over to where Kirito was. "You want to go back now?"

She immediately nodded, having enough of the horrible forest where they had been for over two hours.

Standing right by Kirito's side, the pair began to walk back towards Rosemary village, both having enough fighting for the day.

XXXXXRosemary VillageXXXXX

"Please take our family heirloom. It is the only way to repay you for your help!"

Asuna and Kirito finished listening to the NPC's heartwarming thanks twice in a row. It was still just as annoying as it was when they received the quest. Oh well at least they were finished with the thing now. Kirito took his Anneal Blade that he received and pocketed it inside his inventory while Asuna did the same with her Wind Fleuret.

The walk back to Rosemary was uneventful much to the silent thanks of both of the party members. The Little Nepents seemed more docile when they found them in the forest. It seemed like destroying the golem Taogral had tamed the forest. Only a few wolves that conveniently spawned on the road back hindered them by a few fractions of a second before they were easily eradicated by a single swipe.

When they made it back to the village, they found that many of the previously empty areas of the town were now full of new players that most likely came from the Town of Beginnings. It was fine for Kirito anyways, he was only planning to spend another day or two here with Asuna before they headed out to somewhere else.

Maybe they could find some more people to join their party. If they had a full one of six then they could probably go into the dungeon and grind there.

Making a mental note to search with Asuna for more players tomorrow, he thought about everything else he needed to do. He needed to sell his old and useless items to someone, he preferred someone human so that his items could help newer players in the future. He needed to find a blacksmith to upgrade his Anneal Blade and Shirokou to respectable levels. Once again, it would be better to give the items to actual players so they could get some sort of experience and with his luck, he doubted he was going to fail. He also had to get rations for both Asuna and himself. Damn he had a lot of things he had to do tomorrow.

At least it was going to be more normal than today right?

The pair chatted amicably as they walked down towards the farmer's house that Kirito rented before they left the village. There were two bedrooms, a balcony, fresh food, and a bath! Asuna had heard of the bath portion of Kirito's description and promptly grabbed him by the collar, asking a little too sweetly if she could stay at the place he rented. He quickly relented, not wanted to deal with the malicious aura that started to surround her.

Along the way, he caught some of the glares that males sent his way, the reason clearing being right next to him. Girls were already a minority in SAO, and one being pretty and good at the game at the same time was just plain rare. For Kirito to be blessed with Asuna made the other males jealous. He was sure that they'd throw a fit if he were to show his luck stat and new sword.

It was already night when the two reached the farmers home. They had gotten sidetracked when Asuna brought them to a shop filled with pastries. Even though he didn't have a real wallet, Kirito almost felt like a few pounds have been lifted off of him. Stepping into the rented second floor, Kirito allowed Asuna to take the bath first which the girl was thankful for. He simply sat in a chair, thinking about his current situation.

There was bound to be animosity between players given a week of time. It was simple, the new players were going to blame the beta testers for the entire situation. He sighed at the thought. How were they supposed to conquer the 100 floors of Aincrad with only the ones that didn't have any information while also having a divided front line? It was just illogical yet some would still create the rift just for the attention it would bring around themselves. He was imagining a cactus haired bastard ranting about the unfairness of the game.

Somewhere in Aincrad, said cactus haired bastard sneezed on a sub-boss, causing it to agro onto him while he ran and let out unmanly shrieks.

Kirito still wasn't very used to leading, or even being in large groups. Sure it has gotten better from when he would be completely isolated from the real world, only living in the virtual one. Still some changes had their limits. He had become more social in the real world, he hung out with a group of friends that generally numbered around five to six at a time. For some reason he was popular at the school which attracted the attention of some girls. He wasn't as dense as some people liked to believe he was.

However, uniting the entire front against the various floors would be next to impossible. There would always be some people who hated being ordered or had a superiority complex, some rotten people who were sadistic assholes, or just people who likes stealing and watching others suffer. It was one hell of an optimistic view point.

Maybe all that was needed to raise hope up in the game was simply clearing the first floor, making it seem like it wasn't as hard as it was made out to be. Yeah that would be good. He would host an information session maybe a week and a half from now to allow the other players to level up before deciding to tackle the challenge.

He would have to become a leader, it would be hard but he could do it. After all, he still needed to apologize to Suguha for worrying her so much. Asuna still had to return to the real world along with the rest of the players trapped in the game. It gave him to motivation to do it but there was one crucial detail that he left out.

How?

How could he mend the rifts, to gain everybody's trust? Maybe he…

"Kirito-kun!" His eyes widened as he shook his head to clear all of the thoughts. He saw Asuna looking at him concerned. "I've been calling you for five minutes now. What's bothering you?"

It was funny, he had met Asuna by accident and they were already the best of friends. Maybe life or death situations did that.

"It's nothing to worry yourself over, Asuna." She still looked at him concerned. "I'm just thinking about how we can get everybody to work together."

It was still troubling him, the question of how. He never had to deal with this before.

"Just do what you think is right." She smiled at him. "I believe in you, Kirito-kun. You just need to get everyone else to as well."

Hearing her words of confidence, Kirito's face gradually turned up into a smile

"Thanks, Asuna. I needed that." Said girl turned away shyly while her cheeks flushed slightly. "I'm going to go use the bath now, see you in the morning."

He entered the room of the bathroom and turned on the water again. He didn't have to wait for the temperature to gradually change as it was a virtual reality game so he waited until it was at an adequate enough level before hopping in.

He thought about what Asuna had said, about how he should just do what he thought was right. It was going to be hard to lead all those people, but it would get done his way. He wasn't a solo player this time. He didn't have any time to be selfish in this game. He had to make sure as many people as possible survive the encounter. Well minus spiky cactus haired bastards.

Yeah, what Asuna said was right, he was going to do it his way. One day at a time, he would get everyone together under a banner just one day at a time.

He sighed as he left the comforting warm water of the bath before drying off and throwing on some of his clean clothes. Wandering his way over to his bedroom, he plopped down immediately onto the comfortable mattress. He quickly fell asleep, it was just unnatural how fast he fell asleep. It was just the first day, albeit a crazy as hell first day. He still had his lofty goals, but for now it didn't matter. All that he was doing was enjoying his sleep and dreams about a chestnut haired girl.


	2. Chapter 2

XXXXXNovember 29, 2022XXXXX

It had been roughly a month since the start of the whole SAO fiasco. People were regularly sending the company in charge, Argus, death threats if they didn't release their loved ones from the game's server. Although it wasn't nearly as bad as the first few days, their reputation had already gone down the gutter. What was wore for them though was the fact that its creator, Kayaba Akihiko, was nowhere to be found. If the current path continued, then they would certainly be forced to shut down due to bankruptcy.

Though things looked bleak for the Argus employees and owners, things were far worse in the virtual reality game that they hosted. It was only a month into the deadly game and already roughly two thousand players had died. A good three hundred of them already had prior knowledge of the game, in other words they were beta testers. It proved to the remaining player base that knowledge was useless without numbers.

The current situation for the front liners was depressing to say the least. The players that were trying to clear the game for their own reason or the good of everybody else weren't having much luck. They had yet to even find the first floor's dungeon boss room! It didn't sit well with the majority of the expedition members, and with the very slow intake of EXP from the first floor's monsters, they were getting restless.

It was said that the highest level someone was in the game was level 10. If they had tried to farm anymore, they would be met with extremely slow rates, covering about 1% every hour or so. It was just boring for them. Many of the beta players were already ostracized from the frontlines due to the foolish belief that they were there only for themselves. Instead, many of them resigned to helping out some other ways by producing the goods needed.

It was a decent system to say the least, the more experienced with prior knowledge on how the system worked for crafting would first get their skills up to par before eventually taking the beginners to level up theirs. It left the non-betas more relaxed for some reason. Craftsmen were already reaching the cap that the current raw materials collected provided. In order to level them up more, then higher levels would need to be explored. To many, it was far more believable than a month earlier when people were simply taking their own lives to escape the harsh reality.

Today was the first step towards obtaining the freedom that they so desired for. Today was the information session on the first boss. Surely some were skeptical about the legitimacy of the claim as no one they knew had found the room before and all beta players knew that the location changed once every week. Currently, it was the third day, a good four more until they would have to painfully remap all of the dungeon again.

A good fifty or so people attended the meeting, many of them still donning their skeptical looks. They were currently sitting in the ruins of what seemed to be an auditorium. The stone was uncomfortable and hard, but they simply dealt with the discomfort for the information that could be presented was too good to pass up. Many still didn't have enough Col to afford the finer armors and thus were stuck with the generic NPC created ones.

Though, standing in from of the semi-circular shaped stands, were two people that stood out easily from the crowd. Just by looking at them, they could tell that the two well far better equipped than the rest of the group. They gave an aura that seemed to radiate strength and calmness. Their eyes were focused at times but occasionally they would dart to the corners to sneak peeks at the other beside them. The two players, were no other than Kirito and Asuna.

Asuna was came far from the skilled newbie that Kirito had bumped into so long ago. Her long chestnut hair came down to her waist as did the similar colored bangs that framed the sides of her heart shaped face. Her honey colored eyes held far more confidence than they did a few weeks ago. Her current weapon was a Wind Fleuret +6 that was enhanced by a blacksmith upon Kirito's insistence. The weapon hung on the left side of her waist, safely concealed by a brown leather sheathe. The thin weapon with a dark green dome shaped guard was positioned so that Asuna could draw it with speed if the situation called for it, and indeed it did save her life when a monster attacked her unexpectedly.

Her aura and weapon weren't the only things that changed during the past month. She had replaced all of the leather beginner armor for ones that were custom made with the materials the she and Kirito had found while training. The random messages that popped up when Kirito was grinding by himself also helped add to the collection as well. The armor itself didn't look very protective, but the stats they provided easily outscaled any platemail that existed at the moment. They were of course all superior grade, the fourth best quality out of the eight that existed in the game, or the beginning of the upper half. It was the best that could be found right now and offered the most for the wearer.

Her brown boots were now knee level and composed of a type of leather that was created when the duo acquired some Lesser Drake Hide. The mob was extremely rare and only found in the farthest corner of the dungeon that both she and Kirito had cleared a couple of days prior to her commissioning the outfit. A simple white and gold miniskirt served as her leg protection. It was clear that the item followed the universal MMO law of female armor. Even Kayaba Akihiko had to conform to tradition sometimes.

A similarly designed white and gold tunic was worn under various light metal platings. Her armors were protected with gloves that went just below her elbow created with some kind of fabric to make it slightly more comfortable under the protective shiny white metal plates. It seemed that her color scheme was white and gold, making her look like some kind of angel if they weren't in a death game.

Just from following Kirito around and training with him, her level had increased to an astonishing 14, a good four above the supposed highest level. She got the chance to learn a few more skills now that her **Linear** skill was high enough for her to learn the branching moves. Her points were mainly put into agility with a hint of strength whenever she needed it. It was like seeing a flash when she was in battle.

She had taken up an interest in cooking saying that it was something that she had always enjoyed in the real world. At the time Kirito had simply shrugged and said that it would only hinder them in the long run. She made sure that he was regretting those very words. His attitude had done a complete 180 when it came time to sample her first creations. They were simple sandwiches with some spiciness too them but all in all more appealing than the tasteless and mundane bread of the SAO universe.

Kirito practically cried tears of joy after tasting the sandwich which he now dubbed, 'Kami-sama's gift to mankind.' It was a bit hilarious to see the normally stoic Kirito cry anime tears while bowing in the direction of the sun but underneath the giggling, Asuna blushed slightly at the praise from what she would an object of her admiration. Kirito practically begged the chestnut haired girl to continue leveling up her cooking skill to which she happily agreed. It helped that every now and then she could tease him by repeating how he thought that cooking was a bad idea.

The raven-haired swordsman in question had what he called his 'public face.' It was just plain old stoic and showed no emotion. Hell even Uchiha Itachi would be impressed at the display. Strapped to his back was the Anneal Blade +8, the maximum level of enhancement available for the blade. He had tried wielding the Shirokou but was met with a system message that told him he had to be at least level 50 before he could wield it. He face-palmed himself as he completely forgot about the requirements for such a legendary weapon.

His attitude towards grouping hadn't changed much during his stay in the SAO world, yet he was surprisingly okay with the idea of Asuna by his side. He trusted the chestnut haired girl and they had become a dangerous tag-team. Kirito would disarm the mob they were facing before Asuna would show up in one of its blind spots and piercing it with her rapier. The resulting pain would allow Kirito some free damage in before the process would repeat itself. It was simple and deadly but most importantly efficient.

His armor was much different than Asuna's and a completely different color scheme. Like hers, the majority of it was classified by the game as Light Armor, which composed of a mixture of cloths, leather, and light metals. They had found some ores and other required materials by abusing Kirito's insane luck before delivering them to a blacksmith and tailor. It really was a pain to create their current armors. One would have to get a blacksmith and tailor to cooperate and work on the project together. Both of their parts had to be perfect or the resulting creation would have too many flaws in it. A system that required trust.

Solid black boots that were only there to help him keep his grip on the ground, rose up until slightly about his ankle. His leggings were composed of similar black leather used to make both his and Asuna's boots and trimmed with gold to complete the look. Hard leather pads protected the calves and shins and were dyed similarly with black and intricate gold trim. A loose belt was wrapped around his waist that served as the location of all of his important consumables. It was like an additional hotkey bar. The various pouches and holsters were filled with potions and such.

His top seemed to be a tight fitting leather jacket with a cape like addition added only behind it. Dyed black as well, it was also trimmed gold in various patterns as well. The entire thing was composed of the same material, from the forked ending of the cape like addition to the sleeves. The black buckles meant to keep the thing closed were open to show off a dark red tunic with a single golden ring. On the shoulders were pieces of finely crafted silvery metal that were surprisingly light. The upper arm was protected a sheet of intricately crafter metal attached to the leather base. The gloves were simple blacks ones that came just below the elbow and had silvery plates attached similarly. The Anneal Blade +6 rested in the brown leather sheathe over his right shoulder, though said sheath really wasn't much more than a few straps of leather that kept the thing on his back. The clothes he wore were extremely comfortable and breathable as well, something he didn't expect. Whatever they crafted it with, it was some good stuff.

Like Asuna, he too had improved considerably in the level department and was now sitting one level about the girl at level 15. The only reason he was above her is that he spent time endlessly grinding mobs. His skills weren't advancing as far as he liked, but that was only because the strength level of the monsters were no longer great enough to advance them further. He had unlocked new ones though and had their beginning motions memorized and practiced.

The most surprising thing that Kirito had picked up during the month though was something completely off tangent to what his usual profession was. He had taken an interest in goldsmithing. With the amount of precious gems and metals that the duo found from monster drops, it was easy to get started. The first couple of objects that he created were useless and were quickly sold to vendors but the current ones were much more potent and were being used by both Asuna and himself. The game was kind enough to hide the items from view as they would only hinder them while fighting. They would still get the stats though, they were just hidden from view.

Pulling up his UI, Kirito checked the in-game time and noted that it was time to start. He quickly scanned the crowd, counting the amount of players that were there. There were a good sixty or so there now, many had arrived in the final five minutes. He raised his gloves hand to his mouth and cleared his throat in preparation to speak while simultaneously getting everybody's attention to focus on him. Feeling the eyes on him, he couldn't help but feel a little nervous, but stage fright was already dealt with the first time he had gone to nationals for kendo.

"Alright then, we'll start the meeting now." He saw the skeptical looks many of the players gave him and opted to meet every one of their gazes. "Thank you for coming to today's information session." He paused to meet more of the players' eyes. "My name is Kirito, I use a one-handed sword with no shield." The looks of skeptically still hadn't disappeared.

"Oi," A player called out from the first row of seats. The player had a weird cactus like hairstyle which make him look like a douche. He couldn't shrug the feeling that he heard about the man somewhere before. "I've never seen you guys before, so just who the hell do you think you two are?"

Eyeing the cactus haired rager, Kirito deadpanned at seeing when remembered where he heard about him, rather what he heard about him. Staring at him with comical expression he began, "And I'm supposed to listen to a person who ran away from a monster they sneezed on." The sarcasm in his voice was evident and rest of the audience began to sweatdrop at seeing the casual dismissal of the cactus-haired man's question. Said man's ego sputtered in rage upon hearing the embarrassing tale. He pointed a shaky finger at the still deadpanning Kirito and tried to argue back against him, but quickly sat down in defeat.

"Still Kirito-san, I would certainly appreciate knowing what level you are at least. After all it should be something sufficient enough to lead right?" A blue-haired man asked calmly. "Your partner, I'd assume, name and such would also be greatly appreciated as well." Kirito narrowed his eyes, he felt like he saw the face before. He quickly dismissed the errant though and nodded back.

"Of course. It would only be beneficial for us to trust each other with such information." The blue-haired man smiled at him, as he too agreed. "Currently, I am level 15. My level of sword mastery is roughly a tenth of the way finished and my goldsmithing is almost a fifth of the maximum." The statement left many of the audience in shock. Having a tenth of the maximum in weapons mastery was the current cap. It was common knowledge due to beta testers giving them some experience. His goldsmithing though was on a new level all together. To have the materials at this stage and already be a fifth of the way done was insane.

"I am Asuna." The chestnut-haired girl spoke up for the first time. "You are right in assuming that I am Kirito-kun's partner. I use a rapier weapon and am on the same level as Kirito's main weapon mastery." This statement alone caught the attention of many of the audience. "I am also one level below Kirito-kun as a level 14. I rely primarily on speed and thus work perfectly in a tag-team with Kirito-kun." Some of the audience member's jaws dropped. Another relatively high leveled player was in their midst, and partnered with the highest level right now. Asuna turned her head to Kirito only to give a small nod to signal she had finished her part.

"We have finished our pieces, I personally would appreciate it if you did the same." Kirito finished. The blue-haired man nodded and stood up, getting a lot of focus on himself. He was calm and collected and radiated a leader like aura.

"My name is Diabel, Kirito-san, Asuna-san." He saw Kirito nod slightly, "I am currently a level 10 and my main weapon is at a level of 26." He said before sitting back down. Many knew of Diabel as one of the current top players. Hearing his stats compared to Kirito's made him seem like a beginner again. Most of the crowd decided that this Kirito person actually had good information for them and that he was bound to have good strategies if he were to lead.

"It is nice to meet you Diabel-san." Came the reply from Kirito.

"Similarly, Diabel-san." Another from Asuna.

Waiting for the commotion to die down, Kirito took breath before continuing. "Alright. While Asuna and I were hunting the monster camps on the last floor of the dungeon, we came across the boss door." The audience's eyes widened once again. Farming the dungeon was unheard of. The long a party spent in there, the tougher the creatures became. Theoretically, there wasn't an upper limit on the toughness of the spawned creations but simply farming in there was suicidal without a proper healer, something that seemed to be lacking in the group. The fact that it was the highest level only added to their incredulity.

"The boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord and he wields a giant tulwar." Asuna picked up where Kirito had left off. "The main aspect in his attacks is his strength, it'll only take four or five hits total until you are in the red or even worse, dead." She let the information settle in the crowd before resuming. "However, his attacks are easily predictable and he has a very limited range of moves. With proper attention and reactions, anyone could avoid his oaf like swings."

Kirito spoke again, "The boss has a total of 10,000 HP, 50 DEF, so the battle shouldn't last too long. NPC bought weapons should deal around twenty damage each time." He saw many positive reactions from the crowd, he had just said that the battle was much easier than anticipated. "Don't get complacent though. Although the boss focuses one person at a time, the attack pattern changes when it gets to around 1,500 HP." He let the last statement sink in before resuming. "In this form, he more often than not performs wide sweeping attacks and doesn't seem to focus a particular player in general. So everybody should be careful and be ready to react. We also have reason to believe that he might change his choice of weaponry for the last part."

Kirito motioned to Asuna to finish up the information. "The last thing of importance is the bodyguard he has around him at all times." She paused for a few seconds. "He starts off with three Kobold Sentinels at the beginning of the battle. Every bar of HP he losses, another two are summoned so they need to be cleared quickly. Comparatively, they are twice as strong as the toughest dungeon monster." The crowd nodded in understanding, taking out trash mobs before the boss was common so they didn't get swarmed.

"How do we know that this information is accurate?" The cactus-haired man asked.

"That's an easy question. The answer is simply because I was a beta tester." He admitted it without hesitation. The only person he really cared about leaving him right now was Asuna, but she had already deduced it by herself. The rest of the crowd though, were much tougher customers than Asuna. Immediately after the revelation, the looks of skepticism returned in full force. Even though minor reparations between the two sides had been made, the new players still generally dislike them.

"You shit-eating bastard!" Kirito sighed. The relative quiet and peace of the meeting went to hell due to the efforts of a certain cactus-haired prick. Apparently he was one of those players that wanted to see the beta players burn in the ninth circle of hell.

"I refuse to work with you! Filthy beta-players leaving us newbies in the dust!" The cactus-head added. Dissention was stirring in the crowd and Kirito knew he had to do something before it boiled over.

"Do you not want me to lead?" A nod from the cactus-head, "Do you hate me because I am a beta player?" Another nod. "Then trust Asuna here." He gestured to the surprised girl. Ignoring the looks of surprise from both her and some of the crowd he continued. "She is neither a beta tester but rather a newbie that simply asked for my help. Granted at first it took a bit of persuasion on her part but in the end, she still is one of the newbies." Not stopping there he continued.

"Tell me. If you are so angry at the beta players seemingly taking all of the good grinding spots or perhaps obtaining the best items, have you ever tried asking them for help or tips." He was met with a confused look on the face of the cactus haired man. "I know who you are Kibaou-san, believe it or not, I am around towns quite often. I pay attention to the newbies because I care. I assumed that you didn't need any help from me since you were always walking confidently and chatting with your party." The now name Kibaou's eyes widened. It was true. If he thought hard enough he could remember the face of Kirito.

Kirito then pulled out a small red book with the word 'Guide' on it in capital letters. "Do any of you own a copy of this book?" A few nodded taking out their own for show. "I believe that it was sold for free from a few NPC vendors. Am I correct to assume that?" Nods came from everybody around. "Then you would also happen to know that this is the second edition that I am holding in my hands right now. The first was a collective effort from all the beta testers including myself. We tried to pack as much information as possible into the guide to help the newbies start out." He paused for a moment to allow the information to settle in. "The second edition though was a project undertaken by myself.

"This entire month I had been working on creating an updated version of this guide. When I looked through it, I noticed that many things were missing and that some things were outdated. I added many other topics as well, how to begin in certain profession, how to enhance and enchant, best ways to grind, loot tables for a good amount of the mobs. I even catalogued quests that were available to those on the current floor."

To say that many of the crowd were shocked at the newest revelation was an understatement. Asuna herself felt her eyes widened, she never saw Kirito work on the book so he must've done it during the night before he was about to fall asleep. Her perspective of the rave-haired swordsman rose a couple more pegs above where it was currently. He simply cared for the people over himself, though his method of doing so was rather strange.

"Blacksmithing, tailoring, medicine, leatherwork, cooking, fishing and a whole lot more skills that were all written in this book by me personally. Yet that isn't all that I've done for the newbies." He added with another pause now just outright glaring at the cactus-haired man. He looked at the crowd gathered. "How many of you know a man by the name of Agil?" He saw a good portion of the crowd's hands rise into the air. "Now how many of you got your current weapons or gear from him?" Only a few hands dropped. "Then you'd know that his stock had to come from somewhere, and over 50% of that somewhere is from me." Another jaw-dropping revelation. It was true Kirito sold practically all his excess or old gear to the man named Agil.

He first met the large African man at the front of his shop one day. The Town of Beginnings was large and had only a few buildings that were available for rent. Agil was in one stand chatting amicably with another customer. He saw that the customer was trying to get a new weapon to replace his old starter one. It was a longsword much like the one Kirito himself started with. However, Agil said that it didn't suit his fighting style and simply handed over a katana to the newbie. He just gave it for free without asking for anything except to spread the word about his shop.

After seeing this, Kirito quickly made his way to the man and asked him what that was all about. He said that he didn't like seeing the people around them dying or giving up so he was trying to help keep the fighting spirit strong by helping out the newbies. The gear he hold in the shop was ridiculously cheap compared to other player vendors and hell even NPCs themselves. It was then that Kirito asked if they could broker out a deal with each other. Kirito would supply the gear while all Agil had to do was pay a static amount per week. That way, he didn't lose too much buying the stuff from Kirito. Ever since that deal was brokered, his shop had risen in popularity exponentially. It had made a name for itself with the quantity and quality of the items combined with the super cheap cost.

Most of the crowd were still speechless at the claim. Asuna already knew the man from Kirito. He had taken her to meet him and possibly get him to party. The man refused saying that he had to man the shop but added both of them as his friends and told them to message him when it came time to take on the boss.

"Do you still believe that all beta players are bad?" Kirito asked the cactus-head. "It is true that a few of us are good for nothing selfish assholes, but that doesn't apply to all of us." He gave a knowing look to Diabel, getting the blue-haired man to gulp. "If you're done, I believe that the two of us have given you all the information we have." He redirected his gaze to the entire crowd. "If you still want to fight along the front lines with us, I'll be happy to lead you then. Until then, ja ne." The swordsman turned to the right and began to walk out the auditorium.

He let out a sigh, he didn't have to get so worked up over it. It was a bit annoying to hear that he didn't help the newbies but just infuriating to call him a dirty bastard for simply being in the beta. For all Kibaou knew, he could've been a casual player in it, only logging in one or two hours every weekend. He summed it up to being objectified as a beta tester other than an individual.

"You did well, Ki-bou."

Kirito turned his head to his left and sure enough, there was a figure clad in a brown cloak leaning against the crumbling wall. Six whisker like tattoos adorned her face that was shadowed by her hood. A messy mop of brown hair was barely visible from underneath the fabric. Brown eyes stared kindly at the only recipient of the expression. The player was Argo, fellow beta tester, friend of Kirito but most notably SAO's best known information broker.

Kirito had caught up with Argo two weeks ago when he first needed information on the current levels of the best players the game had to offer. He had messaged her via PM and met her at the desired site. Her endless teasing hadn't died down in the slightest, rather it seemed to be even more embarrassing since she had somehow found out about a mysterious black-clad swordsman traveling with a chestnut haired girl.

Her fascination with becoming a information broker was surprising to say to least to Kirito. During the closed beta, she was constantly on the front lines fighting alongside many others. Her weapon of choice was a claw, not very flashy but perfect for someone who preferred the shadows like her. The role she played was always risky in the big fights so it was probably the reason why she wasn't grinding with the frontliners anymore.

It took her a week and a half to set up her contacts and make sure that they were trustworthy, but in the end it was well worth it. She had created what was essentially the greatest spy network in SAO. When it was up and ready, she message Kirito by PM and told him to contact her if he ever needed to know something. It was the least she could do to repay his kindness during the beta. Surely enough, three days later the swordsman asked for information on the players.

Though she was usually quite spontaneous and energetic, her demeanor made a 180 when doing business with the other players. With the exception of Kirito, she was always focused and stoic. The black-haired swordsman seemed to serve as an outlet for her stress and frustrations via the taunts and banters they had while talking. Though she somehow knew when it was time to be serious when dealing with Kirito, it was times when he was feeling frustrated like now.

Kirito let out a deep sigh, "You really think so, Argo?" He was answered with a small nod.

"No one has done more for the playerbase then you, so you had a right to feel frustrated. Hell if you weren't so damned calm and reserved all the time, I thought you might have exploded!" Her sentence brought a small chuckle to Kirito and a giggle to Asuna. It helped lighten the mood ever so slightly.

A couple of moments later Kirito spoke again, "You sure you don't want to party for the boss Argo?" A shake of the head from the brunette.

"You know that with the fighting style I have and the tasks I was assigned were both extremely risky." He nodded, "That and I'm just level 8, and I've been busy building up contacts instead of grinding." Kirito let out a disappointed sigh. It made sense but it was still disheartening. "Agil will definitely come so you'll at least have three. Besides, you'll see me in action soon enough. I just need my old throwing knives back." She finished trying to cheer him up ever so slightly.

The swordsman lifted up eyes brightened as he put up a small smile, "Right, I'll just wait until you're ready."

Argo's face turned upwards into a playful smile. Kirito didn't like where the conversation was going to go now. "Now for business Ki-bou. I don't think you've introduced me to her." Oh boy, Asuna was going to be tortured by the endless teasing.

He let out a sigh, "Asuna, this is Argo. She's a friend from the beta. Argo, this is Asuna. She is just a friend before you ask." For some reason, Asuna's felt a slight pain in her chest from Kirito's words. Perhaps she wanted to be more than just friends with the black-haired swordsman?

"Oh? Is that why she calls you Kirito-_kun_?" Asuna cheeks started to flush, "I also happened to hear that you two share a bedroom." Asuna's face became tomato like in color while Kirito had the decency to blush. "I also know that she cooks for you and that you constantly give her jewelry. Trying to keep her with bribes, eh Ki-bou? If I didn't know better, I'd think you're trying to make her your girlfriend." Kirito sputtered unintelligibly for a few moments before groaning and giving up. Argo simply smirked at the mess he had become.

"Maa-maa Ki-bou, I was just joking." It served to calm both the blushing Asuna who couldn't' help but sneak glances at Kirito and said black-haired swordsman. "Well it was nice seeing you two, I have to get going now. Some other player wants some info. Well then ja ne!" The hooded figure of Argo seemed to vanish in the wind. Kirito's eyes twitched. All she wanted to do was create a dramatic exit. He would have to ask how she did that the next time that they met.

He turned back to Asuna, whose cheeks were still a rosy hue, and smiled. She fidgeted under his gaze, still thinking about what Argo said about what Kirito wanted. Her heart pounded as she thought about her and Kirito together. So far their friendship had been purely platonic. Could it be that she was falling for him? She didn't like showing her shy side, but in front of Kirito she felt as if it was okay.

"Ano… Kirito-kun." Asuna started weakly. "Is it true what Argo said, you know that you want to be more than just friends?" She suddenly found the ground infinitely more interesting and quickly adverted her gaze away from him. Her nervousness was best noted by the shuffling of her feet, as though she was ready to take off at any second. When she saw Kirito walk towards her with a slight smile on her face and instantly her heartbeat began to quicken. When he stood in front of her, he tilted lifted her head so that their eyes could meet.

The heartbeat began to quicken again as he saw Kirito smile lovingly at her. Her cheeks were certainly stained pink at his adoring gaze. How the hell was he so confident, it wasn't fair that she was the only one that was embarrassed right now!

"You see this smile on my face Asuna?" He asked softly, "For some reason, whenever I see you I can't help but smile like this." He paused, "That isn't all too. I find myself waning to be near you, even if it's just to talk. I treasure the times when we're together and enjoy making you smile." Kirito continued, never losing his voice to emotion. It came close his experience in hiding emotions was helpful.

"I guess the answer to your question is yes then. Absolutely yes." Asuna raised a hand to cover her now open mouth. Seeing her reaction, Kirito continued. "If you'll give me a chance, Asuna, I want us to be more than friends."

Asuna gave up thinking about it and surrendered to her heart's desires, it just happened that her heart demanded that she go forwards and lock lips with the black-haired swordsman. Surprised at the sudden move, Kirito quickly responded and deepened the kiss, latching an arm around Asuna's thin waist. It was a simple kiss where only their lips met, but all of their feelings were poured into it making it all that more memorable. It was unrefined and messy as neither had prior experience in the art, but for them it was just perfect.

After what seemed like hours on end, the two finally parted to give their lungs the sweet air that they so desperately craved. Asuna's flush dusted her cheeks a pretty pink and traces of ones found their way onto Kirito's as well. Kirito leaned in for another that Asuna's readily accepted and the two were back at it again. The duo wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon as they were perfectly content with where they were and what they were doing. Yet the day was still young and there were things that still had to be done. The three days before the storm wouldn't be silent for either one of them. Preparations had to be made and a suitable plan as well.

Reluctantly breaking the kiss, Kirito pulled Asuna into an affectionate hug. The chestnut-haired beauty did the same as both enjoyed the silent moment. "We have a lot of work ahead of us, ne?" Kirito asked.

Her chest reverberated signaling that she had hummed out her answer. "Let's just focus on that battle first, Kirito-kun." A silent agreement between the two and the embrace ended. The pair walked back towards the Town of Beginnings hand in hand.

XXXXXTown of BeginningsXXXXX

Kirito walked down the market street of the Town of Beginnings alone. Asuna had split off from him a little bit earlier, claiming that she had things to do in the city. He supposed that it would be an appropriate time to find the blacksmith that helped him and Asuna enhance their weapons. Walking aimlessly around and trying to find a certain person who really didn't stand out in a crowd the last time he saw her didn't really fit well together. Sighing, he distantly heard a hammer strike metal. Finding it by his ear, he found himself in front of a small shop that said 'Blacksmith.'

Inside of the small building was a girl much like the one that helped him in the near past. Yet there was one, no two differences between them. One was that the girl had a silver hairpin holding up a few bangs so that they wouldn't obscure her vision. Two was the more obvious and that was the fact that the girl had rose colored hair. Last time he checked, the blacksmith was a brunette not a pinkette.

Her shop wasn't too busy, probably due to the fact that word hadn't gotten out yet. When a girl, a cute one at that, was in charge or a service or shop, they quickly became the most popular. Only a fifth of the game's population were girls and cute ones were even harder to find. Naturally, the guys flocked towards them and annoyed them with their antics. Once they learned of her skills, she was bound to attract more attention to herself.

Finishing up with a customer, she looked over at Kirito before blinking her eyes causing the black-haired teen to do the same. Kirito definitely knew that it was the same person who had helped them before now. It only left one explanation for her sudden change, and those hairclips were the reason behind them. Many players were unsatisfied with their looks in the game and thus unsatisfied by it in real life so they had tried to come up with a way to change them, or appearance modification.

Kirito and Asuna were examples or what appearance modification could do. It seemed that Kayaba Akihiko left no error when calculating the measurements of each player's body. He had also locked them permanently into a player, so no matter what they did, they would always be the same size and stature unless their bodies naturally grew. The one thing you could change was the appearance of your clothes, though it was a rather tricky and costly procedure. A tailor had to essentially fuse two items together with the end result getting the stats of the better item and the appearance of the normal clothing.

Both Asuna and Kirito's armors didn't look that way in their natural states, rather the clothes were made to replace the bulky and unaesthetically pleasing looking armor underneath. The tailor Ashley, had accepted the job when they first asked it of her and said that it would be her best pieces to date. The sigh of so many superior materials was too much for her as she was left jaw-dropped with a deadline. The end results were worth it, and was better was that they didn't have to go through the pain of making a new set of similar looking clothes, they could just fuse a new piece's stats to it.

"Lisbeth?" Kirito asked tentatively. The pinkette merely nodded.

"What brings you here Kirito? Your sword's already maxed out so you have something else?"

Kirito brought up his UI and requested a trade with Lisbeth. The pinkette agreed to the trade and Kirito spent several seconds scrolling through his inventory in search of the items. He put the materials in the trade menu immediately after he found them. Lisbeth eyes widened as he let out a slight gasp.

"You think you can make these into ingots Lisbeth?" He was answered with a shake of her head. Kirito let out a slightly disappointed sigh and closed the trade. "By the way, are you going to help us in three days?"

"I will, after all someone has to watch over you when Asuna isn't looking." Kirito deadpanned, he couldn't be that reckless now could he? He quickly shook himself out of that thought process and donned a small smile.

"Great. So you'll be working with us right?" Another nod. "Alright then Lisbeth, I'll see you later."

As Kirito left from the stifling hot room, he heard a commotion coming from the center of the plaza near him. Walking over there, he caught sight of a growing crowd surrounding what seemed to be two players. He recognized both immediately, it was the same cactus-haired player from the meeting; Kibaou was his name if he was correct. The other was Asuna who seemed to have somehow ended up meeting with the power hungry man. Making his way through the crowd, he was able to make out parts of the conversation.

"Why would you hang out with a filthy beta?! Don't you know what they've done?" It seemed like the bastard had a thick skull as well. If was as if he never said the examples during the meeting. Parting his way through a couple more people, he was able to make it to the outer edge of the makeshift perimeter. Asuna caught sight of him and gave him a heartmelting smile. Kibaou had found him too, though his greeting was a little less pleasant.

The cactus-head didn't even bother suppressing a growl nor the scowl that he issued at Kirito. He pointed a finger at the swordsman. "What the hell do you think you're doing here you filthy beta! Finally back here to mock us newbies?"

Kirito deadpanned at the man's stupidity, "I was just here for the meeting that you were also at. Can you really not remember that long ago?" Many of the crowd snickered through the barely veiled insult.

"Oh now you're insulting me, eh?" Yes that was exactly what he was doing, "Well let's see if you can back up your words, beta. I'll show you what scum like you left behind." Now Kirito was sure that the man was a little handicapped. Didn't he tell him during the meeting that he was five levels above him? Kibaou went through the UI and brought up the duel option and Kirito along with it. It was the simplest one, the first one to yellow loses. Looking over at Asuna he saw her nod and sighed before clicking the accept button.

Immediately a huge timer came up along with an announcement in the air to the side of the two participants. A full minute was given before the two would fight, and they were advised to prepare before the countdown began. Kibaou pulled out his axe and gave a smirk at Kirito. Said swordsman just stood there with a bored expression on his face like it was just plain troublesome for him to get involved in such a petty thing. Kibaou's eyes flicked over to Asuna and eyed her hungrily like a hunk of meat. Kirito's eyes narrowed at the unconcealed action. He was originally planning to go easy on the fool challenging him but now that he was eyeing his new girlfriend, he was going to beat him into the ground in the most embarrassing fashion.

Fifteen seconds were left until the clash between the two warriors. Kibaou was sputtering out taunts that didn't really mean much to Kirito so he just ignored them. He barely brought his hand up in time to stifle one of his famous eight second yawns. He saw Kibaou's face twitch in irritation and swore that a tick mark appeared. He looked at his armor and flicked a few pieces of imaginary dust off of it, increasing Kibaou's anger even more.

Three seconds left, Kibaou was beginning to ready himself.

Two seconds left, Kirito still hadn't move an inch.

One second left, Kibaou's anger was about to boil over.

A chime sounded and the duel was underway. Kibaou immediately rushed forwards like a berserker mad with rage. He attempted to use a sword skill similar to the **Slant** to cleave the boy in two. Kirito lazily held his arm up and grabbed the edge of the axe. Yawning once more, he clenched his fist and a few pieces of the iron that was used to make the weapon cracked and fell off into Kirito's hand before disappearing into a swirl of blue glass. Another easily predictable swing came from Kibaou, this time Kirito grabbed the shaft of the two handed weapon and just like before snapped the thing like a twig.

"You're far too arrogant." Kirito said before knocking the stick that remained out of the cactus-head's hands. "You believe that you could challenge someone five levels above you with superior equipment and skill, foolish." Asuna's eyes widened. It was like he was a different person in battle. Granted the person in front of her deserved everything thrown at him. She caught his lecherous gaze before the match began and was thoroughly disgusted with it.

"Your irrational hatred of the beta players is both foolish and destructive." He continued this time drawing his blade and smacking the left side of Kibaou's face with the flat of the sword. The cactus-head went tumbling for a good three meters before managing to stand up. "It is people like you who will doom us in the end." He targeted his face again and once again smacked him away before calmly walking over to him.

"Are you enjoying our little spat? Are you happy that you can see the futility of your efforts?" Kirito asked rhetorically. "Stand up, we're not done yet." Kibaou struggled to regain his footing, the second strike had hit him at the temple. "Perhaps you're jealous. If that's the case then go do something about it instead of bitching and moaning." Kirito's eyes grew colder and colder. "You do not deserve the luxury of being human. Trash like you should remain as trash." Kirito walked over to the wobbling Kibaou. "This isn't the anger of beta players. This is my anger, and mine alone, the rest don't have anything to do with them!." Kirito finished before slamming the flat of his blade into Kibaou's temple again, knocking the player unconscious and winning the duel.

"You will not participate in the raid in three days, I will make sure of it, trash." Even though he was unconscious, Kibaou's face turned into a scowl. There was simply a limit to how many players could be reasoned to work with each other and he was definitely sure that Kibaou would only serve to get more killed. Hearing the whispers in the crowd, it seemed like he drew most of the attention off of the beta players and onto himself. Letting out a mental sigh, he looked at the concerned face of Asuna. She had good reason to be worried. She had never seen this side of him before.

"Kirito-kun…"

"Gomen, Asuna." Kirito began. "It's just that when he looked at you like that and with all the things he said, I think I just lost it."

She hushed him and gave him a brief hug. Things wouldn't be too bad as long as she was at his side.

XXXXXFloor 1 Dungeon Level 20XXXXX

It's been three days since in the incident with Kibaou in the Town of Beginnings. None of the spectators at the time were beta players, they themselves were probably too afraid to go near these lest they be burned at a stake. As such, the extremely cruel beatdown that he gave to Kibaou seemed to hit home hard to the players there at the time. It didn't seem like they cared that he had spent so much time helping them or even that the cactus-head was the aggressor. All that mattered was that he was a beta tester, and thus he was now worse than trash.

Apparently, the people had even gone out the way to come up with a title for him. Apparently his moniker was now The Black Swordsman, a reference to how cruel he was to, in the eyes of the crowd, an innocent newbie. There was another moniker given to him, although this one was much less satisfying to hear. It simply Demon. Apparently his eyes looked like those from the pits of hell during his bout of rage in the end of the duel. It was good to have titles and such, but these simply pushed everyone away; everyone that didn't know him personally or was a beta tester.

The only good thing that came out the exchange was the lack of attention given to beta testers now. With the duel being so publicized, people stopped beating on the betas and started to become wary of Kirito specifically. Many of the betas were thankful for the Demon, after all he took all their attention away onto himself.

Kirito had spent the time training inside the dungeon alone the entire three days. He ruthlessly hunted down the creatures that spawned in the infinite darkness of the twentieth floors deepest parts. Armed with only his Anneal Blade +8 and a teleportation crystal, he easily slaughtered over a thousand creatures during his brief stays in the area. He truly was a demon in battle, hard to keep still, impossible to kill, strength beyond comparison, and a fiery look in his eyes.

He changed the color scheme of his clothes once he heard of his new title. He opted for a red trim to help fit the demon picture that much better. The plates of metal that adorned his light armor were now a deep scarlet. Sometime, he had managed to craft himself earrings. He didn't wear them purely for stats, but also for the cosmetic appeal to his image as well. They were simply crosses on chains that hung roughly an inch below his ear. What could be more ironic than a demon wearing a holy cross?

He could no longer help from the light, but that didn't stop him from helping out within the shadows. He still donated gear to Agil's shop and now secretly made rings via his goldsmithing to sell as well. He placed random amounts of Col and drops in arbitrary locations, hoping that another player would come across the package and write it off as good luck. He sounded like a dark knight, but that was what he was right now. He's just have to live up to his image then.

His ending grinding of mobs was doing wonders for his level. Due to the difficulty ramp in the dungeon, it was actually possible for him to gain EXP and as a result level up again. His stats once again improved by leaps and bounds and the same applied to his skills. He gained an impressive five levels from the ceaseless battle and numerous quality materials to use in the future if he saw Lisbeth or Ashley again.

Kirito claimed that he was killing the things for stress release, but Asuna knew much better. Her new boyfriend wasn't simply going out and killing a few wolves to relief his anxiety, he was practically killing himself to improve. Every time he came back to the room where the two stayed, he looked like he was ready to keel over and die. It happened multiples a day. He only returned when his HP was well into the red zone that a simple mosquito sucking his blood would've killed him. It scared Asuna and brought her to tears the first time he came back like that. She had worked franticly to restore him back to full HP with the help of a few potions.

The next day he got a lecture and a multitude of bonks of the head before his girlfriend followed him into the dungeon. She had forced him to go back to the real world when his HP was about to enter the red zone. He begrudgingly agreed to her request. He reasoned to himself that they had to prepare for tomorrow's raid so it was a justified concern.

It was where the duo stood right now with the two stood right now. Kirito had called off Agil and Lisbeth's participation in the battle since he didn't want their reputations to be lowered for working with the Demon. The two grumbled and complained but ultimately backed off. He was truly grateful for their concern, but he wouldn't risk their current careers for some selfish reason. Asuna was already associated with him regardless of his he were to do anything, so it couldn't be helped that she was with him.

Asuna was pretty overleveled much like Kirito and currently sat at a very respectable 19, still just one shy of Kirito. Using Lisbeth's forge and a couple of Redsteel Ingots found by Kirito, she melted down her Wind Fleuret +6 in its metal form and mixed it with the molten ingots to form a new kind of alloy. Lisbeth used the resulting metal to craft her a new rapier called the Light's Will. True to its name, Redsteel when in its purest form had a orange tint to it. It made Asuna's blade look like it was shrouded in holy light the way it was shining, a fitting image for the blade. The stats of the item were comparable to Kirito's own long sword.

Now back to the situation at hand and the biggest problem as well. No one else had shown up.

It appeared that no one wanted to work with him after the fiasco with Kibaou, even the ones who supported him in the meeting. He didn't blame them, after all they would be ostracized if they worked with the Demon. Letting out a sigh, he turned to face Asuna. She wore a slightly melancholic smile on her face, a sight that didn't seem to fit her at all. She felt it was her fault that Kirito got involved, a notion that said teen quickly denied.

"Guess it's just us, eh Asuna?" A weak smile appeared on Kirito's face. It seemed rather apologetic.

"I think you're right Kirito-kun. Although I don't mind it that no one else is here."

"Oh? I think you just want more time alone with me. I mean look what happened last time." He finished with a sly smile when he saw Asuna's flushing face.

"B-baka. Let just get this over with."

Sighing once more, Kirito turned to face the door to the boss. Like all other MMOs, the door was imposing and evil looking. It was probably made out of iron. It was studded as well with two massive rings that served for knocking. They looked to be extremely heavy and require several people to open. It wasn't the case. Since it was an MMO, all that Kirito had to do was lightly push the thing and both sides would spring open. Glancing at the door and the back at Asuna, he gave the door a solid heave when he saw her nod.

Wasting no time, the duo quickly sprinted into the room. Its dimensions were roughly twenty meters wide, a hundred or so deep and ten high. The room was pitch dark with no light source to be found. A lavish looking red carpet ran from the door to the void ahead of them. As the doors closed with a bang, several torches began to flicker to life and the ceiling lit up as well in some strange rainbow pattern. The former dark void was now the end of the hallway with a massive silver throne.

On the throne sat the boss of the first floor, Illfang the Kobold Lord. From what he recalled in beta, the boss was a massive pushover and was easily soloable. It would be much easier with two overleveled characters. The ugly red creature climbed up to its stubby legs before unleashing a hissing shriek at the two, sending a few drops of saliva to the floor. It pulled out a leather buckler and handaxe before jumping up flamboyantly into the air and crashing down a few meters away from them. As the HP bars began to fill, Kirito immediately rushed forward, trying to use the few seconds that the boss needed to complete its startup animations to his advantage. Asuna did a similar thing as well, and followed Kirito but was cut off when three smaller kobolds spawned in her path.

She quickly dispatched one of them using a new skill that she had learned called **Linear Barrage** a subskill of her beloved **Linear**. It was a ten hit combo that pierced the enemy in multiple places all in the span of a second, a truly frightening prospect. It had a much longer cooldown though, and the parent skill couldn't be used in that time either. With one out of the way, there were only two diminutive creatures blocking her way now.

Readying another new skill, **Pierce**, she turned her attention to the one on her right. She swung from her current position and a ray of light traveled between her and the monster. The strike hit the creature through its head and it burst into blue polygons. The skill was from an entirely different tree than **Linear** and was more suited for mid-range engages and skirmishes. Normally it wouldn't have killed a monster outright, but she was a good ten levels above the current ones so it was expected.

Focusing on the last one, she used a skill that she learned from Kirito when she asked about it, the **Sonic Leap**. It was a godly skill when it came to gap closing and didn't understand why many people didn't use it. The thrust part of the animation came and tore a hole through the final sentinel's chest as though it was butter. With the trash mobs taken care of, she hurried towards Kirito to help him with the main course, the boss.

Kirito would say that he was having fun, but that would be a lie. The boss was incredibly boring both mechanic wise and difficulty wise. The strikes were so painfully obvious that even a green as grass newbie would be able to dodge. It was simple. Kirito would wait for the boss to strike with his massive handaxe and attack after its clumsy animation. The thing was already down two bars of HP. The sentinels that spawned beside it were pretty easy to kill too. A single horizontal was all it took for them to die.

He brief saw Asuna use a **Sonic Leap** to appear behind the boss as a large chunk of HP disappeared and ultimately shattered the third HP bar. More sentinels spawned but they were quickly dispatched and both turned their attention back towards the boss. Both glanced at each other before nodding. They already had a plan to deal with the pesky weapon change and it was a rather simple one at that. They would simply use their best skills at the last bar to completely butcher it before it got the chance to change.

With all of her cooldowns reset, Asuna led the charge. Her **Linear Barrage** was beautifully deadly. Even without a **Sonic Leap** to act as a speed steroid, her form was still much faster than Kirito's, it was like watching her flash across the battlefield. Her blade glowed gold as her skill finished charging and she gave a shout as she unleashing it on the boss. All ten of the strikes hit the exposed chest of the boss and ten Ping-Pong ball sized holes were drilled through it.

Chaining together a **Sonic Leap** with one of his abilities was a little hard at first due to the system's insistence that he thrust or slash, but he eventually got it. The speed of execution was so much quicker than usual, it was ridiculous. Regardless, as he neared the boss, he quickly flicked the weapon down into a reverse grip. It was one of his original creations. He never got to put the way to create them in the handbook so only he and Asuna were now privy to such information.

The blade glowed orange at the sword skill as he disappeared from pure speed again. A cut on the stomach was followed up with on that would surely sever the Achilles tendon. Another cut into the side of the boss vertically was continued with two horizontal slashes on its back. The last five strikes were a blur as they seemed to interlock. The five quick slices appeared on the torso of the boss, dealing massive damage. Kirito sheathed his sword and suddenly, the slices poured out red polygons. "**Mad Spiral**." He muttered.

The boss's eyes seemed to dim. The ethereal glow that they possessed seemed to completely die out. The buckler and handaxe dropped to the floor as the creature soon burst into blue polygons. A large congratulations was displayed over where the body of the boss should've been. Three successive dings from Kirito and four from Asuna were heard as they both leveled up multiple times from the boss. It made sense, the boss was made to level up all players in a 64 man raid. There were only two of them so they got over 32 times the amount they otherwise would've gotten. Add that and the fact that they were already overleveled and it would make perfect sense.

"Ne, Kirito-kun. Looks like I finally caught up to you." Kirito blinked once, twice, before falling down to the ground on his knees. Asuna sweatdropped when she heard him muttering along the lines of, 'It's not fair' or 'I worked my ass off for that level.' Couldn't he be a little bit happier for her achievement? She let out a small sigh before giggling at his antics. Kirito lifted his head up and joined in the laughter.

Calming down, he dismissed the last hit bonus screen in front of him without even looking at the item. It was probably nowhere near the quality of his current gear so it was essentially useless. He's probably give it to Agil later when he got the chance. The first ten floors or so would be a joke for the both of them. He remembered perfectly that it wasn't until floor fifteen or so that bosses really started to become a nuisance. The first ten were really just glorified pushovers that were hardly tougher than a field boss.

The room suddenly darkened from its original color. The ceiling which was once a mixture of colors, turned into dark expanse. The bricks and windows of the walls turned into the signature blue-gray bricks of the first dungeon. A huge pillar sprung out of the ground where the throne once stood and a spiraling staircase wound itself around the structure. A huge door much like the one used to get into the room was visible from where the two were standing.

Kirito walked calmly up the staircase with Asuna right behind him, the two were hardly tired from the so called boss fight and were ready to tackle the new floor of Aincrad. Kirito wasn't sure if there would be a system message sent out when they activated the teleportal on the other side, the only way to find out was from trying. He felt something wrap itself around his fingers at the top of the stairwell right in front of the door. He turned to his left to see Asuna wrap her hand with his. Letting out a small smile, the two put their hands on the different doors and pushed.

XXXXXA Month LaterXXXXX

People found that that the first floor had been cleared. It started with another information session on the dungeon boss led by Diabel this time. The blue-haired man had a certain charisma and was well respected by the players for his contribution to the community and skill. He was their unspoken leader for the time being. Even if they didn't know the man personally, they couldn't help but relax into his easygoing personality, and inspired by his confidence. It was the reason that a good chunk of the front liners chose to follow him into battle. Or they would, if there had been a boss.

The raid group had arrived to the dungeon and gone through the twists and turns required to reach the upper most level. Diabel at first was a little skeptical at the boss's room staying in the same spot for the last month or so. As a beta tester, he knew that the room was supposed to change. Additionally, no one had seen the Demon for the last few weeks. Many cheered at the fact that such a horrible person was gone from the world, but Diabel couldn't help but furrow his brow when he heard the information.

There was no way a player as strong as Kirito would just keel over like that. Diabel was a regular member in Kirito's party during the beta. He never got to know the black-haired teen personally, but his skill was something to envy. Even if he was weak, the girl, Asuna he remembered was her name, was skilled enough to protect him. It just didn't make any sense. He had used his searching skill on the first floor and still came up empty handed. The mysteries seemed to surround both the Black Swordsman and the strange door in front of him.

Putting aside those thought for now, Diabel focused on the situation at hand. Such thoughts would only hinder them in the upcoming fight. But still his mind couldn't help but wander back to the question. Stopping just in front of the door he turned so that his back was to the door and he was meeting the gaze of each of the raid members. He unsheathed his sword and sank the tip in between the bricks that composed the floor directly in front of him. He placed both hands on the hilt of his weapon and waited for all the members to settle down.

"Now that you're all here, I only have one thing left to say." He gave a cocky smirk, "Let's win." Cheers came from the crowd that followed him as he pushed open the door. The massive iron doors groaned as they slowly opened, dramatically revealing the room in front of them. A thud was heard and the horrible noise of metal on stone was stopped. The doors were fully opened and revealed the interior of the room to everybody's open eyes. Diabel led the group through the doors cautiously, not knowing what to fully expect. He raised his arm in a halt motion and soon enough, torches began to flicker to life.

The room brightened immediately with the introduction of torchlight; orange flames licked the air and produced small puffs of black smoke. Every three seconds or so, two matching torches from both sides of the hallway flicked to life and lighted the dark expanse further. Diabel motioned to move once again and the group hesitantly walked forwards into the dark abyss.

The deeper and deeper they traveled into the room, the more Diabel was unnerved. Nothing had gone to what he had expected. For one, the massive doors haven't swung back to their original locked position and shut them in. The ceiling wasn't rainbow colored like the beta and the boss hadn't sensed them yet. He continued forwards under the torchlight, each step more careful and prepared than the last. His nervousness though was exchanged for surprise when he reached the end of the hallway.  
Instead of a throne made from a silvery stone, there was a massive spiraling staircase that winded around a pillar. Diabel's eyes widened at the sight. All the irregularities made sense now. The door not closing when they walked in, the room not changing location, the strange lighting, all of it was happening because the boss was already dead! His mind raced as he thought about who could have possibly done this. His thoughts immediately went to suspect Kirito, but even if he was skilled, there was a limit on what he could do. A different part of his mind was raging at losing his last hit opportunity, but it was quickly silenced with the questions that assaulted it.

Sheathing his sword and placing his shield back on his back, Diabel motioned for his group to relax. Many were confused at the sudden turn of events, they were fully expecting an epic fight between what was described as a fat, disproportioned boss and themselves. Instead, their leader was telling them to relax and lower their guards. A hint of disappointment with an overbearing amount of relief flashed through the group's eyes as they relented and stowed their weapons.

"Lower your weapon's players. There isn't a boss left on this floor anymore." The statement was met with shocked expressions from the group as Diabel stood there impassively. A similar though ran through their heads. Who? The player or players that killed the boss had obviously killed it weeks ago. It had to be then or else their scouts would have seen them enter the room. If left another question as a follow up to the first.

Just how strong were those people?

XXXXXSixteenth FloorXXXXX

Meanwhile on the sixteenth floor Kirito felt a small chill run down his back.

Shrugging it off, he resumed what he was doing, practicing some sword katas. Most of the styles he learned were Japanese, though there were a few Chinese ones that he came across as well. Though they were to be performed with a katana or wakizashi, for the Japanese ones or a general's sword for the Chinese ones, Kirito was able to use his longsword for the complex movements. Said achievement was the result of his prodigious swordsmanship.

The last few weeks, he dedicated a certain amount of time towards refining the old or creating new sequences for his blade. He noticed when he was in SAO, he was nothing like what he was when he was in a kendo match. He was normally calm and calculative, counterattacking the opponent when they overextended or simply outmaneuvering them with precise footwork and a multitude of slashes. He never had open spot to strike at, the pinnacle of defense with a sword.

Yet the first few floors had made him lax, and he noticed this pretty quickly. Due to the simplicity of the monsters on the lower levels, he didn't to use his complicated maneuvers or uncounterable guard, he could just move his sword lazily to guard again a wolf. By the fourth floor, the half-assed guard was simply not cutting it anymore and it was then when Kirito realized his own foolishness.

Now, to get his mind back to its normal battle mentality, he was forcing himself to redo the katas for all of the styles over and over again. One day it would be a style based on a powerful first strike, other times it would emphasize the fluidity of chaining attacks. His muscles ached and were sore as hell, but in the long run it would be a benefit for him, so he bared with it for now.

Today, he was practicing the famous first style of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu. Kirito like this style the most personally and believed that it would be the best one if he were to ever get in a fight with a player. The style focused itself around flowing, subtle movements to cut up the opposition but it was the principles of the style that he liked the most. Following some Aikido principles, Yagyu Shinkage-Ryu emphasized disarming attacks to disable the opponent instead of outright killing them.

Though it was made for a long and thinner blade like the katana, which Kirito's now equipable Shirokou provided. The blade was tampered with by Lisbeth when she upgraded the thing and it was now in its katana form. It was rather handy when Kirito wanted to practice his old katas, so he temporarily kept it that way. He still preferred the heaviness of a longsword, but he realized that a light sword like the katana had its benefits, mostly the speed and accuracy of the strikes. When Kirito asked Lisbeth what had happened to the sword, she explained that when she got near it with the two ingots that it required for upgrade, the sword transformed itself into a hilt, ready to accept a blade. She hammered the two lumps of metal and produced a 72cm length blade for use.

The sword was still of the highest quality and was really quite a beautiful weapon. The metal used to craft the blade was the same as the one in the longsword. A luminescent white with a silvery edge was the end result. A line of gold bolded the hamon of the katana, running down the entire length in a wave like design. The guard was a rectangle made out of a black metal that was similar to the old version. Red silk was woven around the hilt for grip and a small amount of similar colored silk hung from the end, acting as a tassel. It was smithed using the Soshu Kitae method used by the legendary smith Masamune. A famous, or infamous, person would have to have a famous sword, and the new Demon of SAO would make it so.

The blade was only now usable because of the endless work that Asuna and he undertook to clear the first few levels of Aincrad. The monotonous grinding and the boss battles had provided more than enough experience for him to successfully level up to fifty and then some. He just used the new Shirokou against the last boss, Fenrir, the Wolf Spirit, and he was jaw-dropped by its effectiveness. The blade cut through sinew and muscle like a hot knife through butter.

Kirito took a deep breath and relaxed for a few seconds before flowing through the various katas of the style. As a prodigious Gaiden, the second highest rank of the style, he was instructed on various complex and exhausting movements that taxed his entire body. Closing his eyes, Kirito focused on the precise techniques he was taught. Unlike the beginner forms of the kenjutsu, where the sword was raised by in the air by both hands, the beginning of his was exponentially more advanced and was more suited for his combat style as it only used one arm. Resting his left hand on the pure white leather sheath, his right arm was prepared to quickly draw the deadly weapon if required, such was the odd opening position of the style.

In a flash, his blade was drawn and had already traveled from the right side of his imaginary opponent's waist towards the left shoulder. The blade never stopped after that though, as the slash was quickly followed up with a sideways, single handed trust that no normal human could have reacted to. Twisting around while simultaneously removing the sword from the 'torso', Kirito performed his own unique version of the kata from thereon forth. Three quick slashes were made once he was in position after the one movement. The deadly dance was just beginning, and it wouldn't end for another hour or so.

He didn't have a sparring partner to practice kenjutsu with, nor did he really need one. He was able to remember the movements with clarity and simply needed to perform them for discipline. Even if he did have a sparring partner, one wrong move and he or she would be dead by the edge of his blade. He didn't own any shinai or bokken, all that was available were the sharp metal swords. As a result, he refused Asuna's offer of help every time it came up. He had gotten too close to her for him to accidentally end her life with one uncontrolled spar.

The girl was a natural at using the rapier she moved so flawlessly with. Kirito had asked if she was a fencer in real life, an otherwise offensive question as it was taboo to talk about the real world in SAO, but she answered that she wasn't and never held a sword before SAO with little hesitation. The two of them felt enough trust in each other to talk about their real lives when asked by the other. It was funny, the two of them came from opposite spectrums in the world of kenjutsu. Kirito was a prodigy at kendo and learned many other forms and styles by himself with the rare assistance of others, Asuna was a complete newbie that just so happened to be a natural at wielding the rapier.

He and Asuna had gotten really close in the last month, so much that Argo was constantly teasing them about kids when she came to give Kirito his information. The result ended with a beet red Asuna and a slightly flushing Kirito stammering out unintelligibly with a cackling Argo. No longer did they sleep in separate bedrooms or areas, though they were still hesitant to share a single bed. They still haven't done anything outside of an occasional make-out session, but it was developing fast for the two, maybe the life or death situation made everybody more appreciative of the time they had.

Sweating profusely under the fully exposed sun, Kirito performed the last few movements of the advanced katas. A horizontal slash followed up with two other in opposite diagonal directions were ended with another horizontal sword thrust into the chest of his 'opponent'. What seemed to be four strikes against a target was actually a disguise. A rock that was unfortunate to be close enough to be shredded by the air pressure caused by Kirito's strength was the victim of the real technique. Panting, but smiling nonetheless, Kirito made a show of flicking his sword clean of the nonexistent blood before performing several twirls and sheathing it back into the sheath with a clack. The rock fell apart into various shapes and sizes, a good forty cuts or so diced the stone like a vegetable before it was shattered in the center from the stab. He was finally done with the movements and he could go home to Asuna. She would surely be waiting for him.

Asuna though, wasn't at home, rather she was hiding behind a tree, peeking just enough to catch the sight of Kirito performing his dance of death. His form was muscular, but not overly so, from his daily training and conditioning. His chest and stomach were well toned for a fourteen year old, though he was fourteen year old boy who had been relentlessly driven into the ground a myriad of times to build up his strength. His frame was like a predator, powerful and agile. He was not so muscular that it burdened his speed like a body builder, he was just perfect for what he was supposed to do. His shirt had been torn to shreds in their last battle, so all that he wore was the cloak like armor that he always wore opened, giving Asuna a perfect view of his torso.

She found herself staring and to her embarrassment, drooling over the form of Kirito. She never had much previous contact with boys having gone to an all-girls private school. He had never seen the male form up close in real life, well it was practically real life. Sure there were magazines and websites with pictures but they didn't have the same feelings as the ones she had now. She watched with rapt attention as Kirito performed the final thrust of the movement and begin to sheath his sword. Ogling his form was something that she would never admit, but it was something like a secret pleasure of hers. Did that mean she was a stalker? No she was just an admirer, yes that sounded better than stalker.

"Come out, I know you're there!" Kirito's voice bellowed out towards her location, causing her to eep in surprise. She walked out of the shadow of the tree she was behind slowly, embarrassed that she was caught staring at Kirito. He didn't catch her the last couple of times when she was watching him, maybe she had inadvertently given herself away. It had to be that.

Kirito's stern face relaxed into a smile reserved only for Asuna when he found out that she was the one hiding from him. If it had been an enemy, he would have done something completely different. The grip on the hilt of his katana slackened and he let out a sigh of relief. The truth was if it was an enemy, he probably would have been too tired to properly fight against them.

"Ne Asuna, Not that I'm complaining or anything, but why are you out here?"

"I was just walking when I found you practicing here." It wasn't a complete lie, she was walking and she did find him here.

"Oh? Did you like what you saw?" He asked playfully in response to her excuse.

Asuna cheeks turned red again at the insinuation. "B-baka. It's not like I was staring or anything." She said weekly.

"Fufu, then what were you doing, ne Asuna?" Kirito smirked seeing that she was in a corner now.

Asuna ignored Kirito's last question, "What was the technique you were practicing Kirito-kun?"

Kirito rose an eyebrow, she never showed an interest in his moves before, "Oh? Why the sudden interest Asuna? Could it be you just want it for yourself?" He meant the last part jokingly, they shared their equipment and knowledge with each other regularly.

The girl crossed her arms and gave an annoyed huff, "Just answer the question."

"Maa-maa, alright Asuna, don't get so angry about it." The girl's eye twitched, "If I'm right you mean the last move right?" She nodded. "The entire movement is called **Hangetsu**, or Half Moon. Pretty flashy isn't it? It's the exact opposite of what the founder had in mind."

Taking a moment to digest the information, Asuna asked, "Kirito-kun, when are we going to have that spar?" Kirito sighed at the question. It was true that he promised her a spar at some point.

"You know that I don't want to spar with our real weapons. What will happen if one of us gets a lucky hit or someone makes a mistake that kills them?" Kirito said, rejecting the idea of a spar at the current moment.

Asuna just smiled, "That's why I got these for us." She said as she brought up her UI and with a few clicks, two items shimmered into existence. It was a rapier and a katana both of rather poor quality. They both seemed to be the starter weapons. "I got them for free off some guy who was just happy to get rid of them. These are really bad so we can spar using these."

Kirito wanted to say that it was still dangerous, but the weapons in front of him would probably be unable to damage him no matter where it hit. With a sigh of exasperation, he gave into Asuna's request. It was just a spar so she wouldn't take it too seriously right? He placed down Shirokou in its katana form so that it was leaning against a tree. It was impossible for anyone to take it so why not just put it there.

Accepting the weapon, he begrudgingly walked back out into the clearing. The brief moments talking with Asuna was more than enough rest for him. Asuna happily followed the brooding Kirito as they stood opposite each other in the clearing. Adjusting the weapon on his waist so that the sheath was in a comfortable position, Kirito adopted a more relaxed version of his beginning stance. Asuna frowned slightly at the relaxed nature that the stance exuded, sure she saw that it was the beginning to the amazing chain of abilities, but the current one was just sloppy and lazy.

On an unspoken note, the duel between the two had officially begun. Asuna used a much faster version of the **Sonic Leap** made just for her to handle, the **Sonic Flash**. Approximately three times as fast as the regular version of the technique, it truly lived up to its moniker. In what was a blink of an eye, Asuna had darted across the clearing to where Kirito was idly standing.

Kirito saw her rapier glow blue-green and his eyes widened. In his current state of relaxation, he would be able to dodge it or counter it. Hastily bringing up his weapon just in time, he was met with the full force of Asuna's signature move. He had to raise his left hand to keep his blade from failing him but even so, the pressure was immense. He was sent back a couple of centimeters, leaving a trail in the ground courtesy of his grounded feet.

_'Well Asuna, if you really want to use Sword Skills…'_ Kirito thought as he prepared a horizontal. The katana glowed soft blue with the power of the skill as Kirito swung at where Asuna was previously. Though it had missed completely. The chestnut-haired beauty was outmaneuvering him so easily like this. His senses managed to detect something behind him and he turned around just in time to put up a guard against one of her **Linear** jabs. The skill hit the side of the blade, somehow no shattering it into two.

Asuna prepared another **Linear** in the span of a fraction of a second and stabbed towards Kirito's unguarded chest. The skill made contact, puncturing a small red hole in his avatar. The amount of HP lost was minimal and was quickly healed by his natural health regeneration.

_'When the hell did she get so fast? She's never like this'_ Kirito mentally asked to no one as he looked up at Asuna. His eyes widened upon seeing her eyes that were normally so warm and caring turned cold and hard with a hint of disappointment.

'_She's serious_.' The raven haired boy noticed as his own eyes narrowed at his girlfriend's form. Shifting his body so that he was in a better position to intercept attacks and counter, Kirito was now ready for Asuna's incredible speed.

Seeing him finally take the fight seriously, Asuna let out a small smile. It was what she wanted. Normally, she wouldn't want to fight any more than she needed to, but the more and more Kirito worked to improve, the more she felt like she was falling behind. She too had been hunting monsters with reckless abandon just in hopes of one day catching up to Kirito. She asked for the spar to prove that she could hold herself against him. As such, she wouldn't be holding anything back against him. She only asked for the name of the move he used to use it as reference to see how hard he was trying.

Another **Sonic Flash** and she was already behind Kirito and ready to strike him again. This time though, the boy responded in time, lifting up his blade to meet Asuna's as he parried her blow with minimal effort. He followed up the brief disable with a simple thrust that Asuna managed to dodge using her flexibility. The brunette jumped back a fair distance away to regain her footing.

Seizing the opportunity, Kirito rushed towards the girl with a **Sonic Leap** of his own. Asuna though was experienced enough in high speeds that she saw Kirito come towards her and raised her rapier up for a parry.

Instead, the two blades met and sparks went flying. Kirito followed up the strike with another one of his moves. Two **Horizontals** and a **Vertical** were combined in rapid succession that it effectively was a new skill altogether. The weapon glowed dark blue at the approaching skill and Asuna's eyes widened at the sight. She quickly used a **Sonic Flash** not to attack the boy, but to reposition herself away from him.

The three strikes all missed their intended target and Kirito's was defenseless for the agonizingly long second it took to recover. In the meanwhile Asuna readied her **Linear Barrage **against the undefended Kirito. His eyes widened as he was unable to avoid the ten strikes that all pierced through his flesh.

Though he couldn't die from it and took virtually no damage, it still hurt like hell. Gritting his teeth, Kirito fought off the pain and steeled his resolve to prepare a counter attack against Asuna. Though his efforts were futile as Asuna was already out of range.

The girl though continued her assault onto Kirito. She prepared her mid-range initiation, **Pierce**. The beam of light struck Kirito and he let out a slight gasp, a large enough time frame to capitalize on. Asuna prepared what seemed like another **Linear**, though it was a lot brighter than it normally was.

"**Linear Assault**." She muttered as her first strike made contact where Kirito's right lung would be. The blade punched another hole through the boy before being brought out and thrust again for a second strike. The second stage was radiating the same golden light just in larger quantities. The strike hit the still shocked swordsman in the gut. Before he could respond, Asuna pulled out her rapier again, this time the weapon was practically bathing in the golden light. The third strike hit Kirito directly in the sternum, struggling against the tough bone for a second before he was sent flying back a couple of meters.

"Is that really all you can do Kirito-kun? I thought you were better than that." The boy heard. How could she think that? Couldn't she understand that she really didn't want to hurt her even if it was a spar? "I thought you were going to be serious."

"I am serious Asuna!" Kirito defended

"No you're not, Kirito-kun. You haven't even used any of your stronger abilities while I just used one of mine."

"I just don't want to hurt you."

"You're hurting me right now!" She yelled before reengaging on the stumbling Kirito. He managed to bring his arm and thus sword into a guard as her rapier clashed against the metal. He saw the disappointment in Asuna's eyes and briefly wondered why she was like that.

He was so focused on her though, he didn't notice her other limb move. Her left hand grabbed onto the sheath that rested on her hip and pulled it out of the sash keeping it there. With a reverse grip, he swung the piece of leather and metal against Kirito's face, creating a strangely satisfying crack.

Kirito was again sent downwards onto the ground and tumbled a couple of times. Before he was able to get up though, Asuna was already besides him, and impaled her rapier through his arm, keeping him pinned down to the ground.

"Why." Asuna said weakly. Kirito moved to yank the weapon that was lodged inside his arm. "Why can't you just fight me for real?!" She now yelled as she took the rapier back into her hand and readier another skill. Kirito managed to get back on his feet and back up a good distance. Asuna jabbed Kirito again and again, none of them felt like victories though, they were just fake and hollow. "Am I just another pretty face to you Kirito?" She didn't even notice she dropped the affectionate suffix. "You told me I was great with the rapier, someone who had tons of untapped potential. You told me all of this so why won't you fight for real!"

Kirito's eyes widened at her speech. He really had said those things, so why was he so scared of hurting Asuna now? Before he could think about it anymore he felt an immense pain go through his chest. The iron rapier that Asuna was wielding as firmly imbedded in his chest. He saw the bob of honey colored hair in front of him shaking erratically.

"Do you know how long I waited for this?" Her voice didn't sound like it normally did. It sounded sad and broken. "I trained for so long, worked so hard all in secret, just so I could catch up to you!" Kirito's eyes widened. "In the end, it seems like I can't even get you to fight seriously. You didn't even have to use that **Hangetsu **move you talked about."

"Asuna, I can't use **Hangetsu** against you." The girl began to shake erratically again. Seeing that she misinterpreted his words he added, "I don't mean that I think you're too weak, or that you aren't worth the effort, I actually can't use it against you." The shaking stopped and the girl looked into Kirito's coal black eyes with her own amber ones. The sadness and disappointment largely replaced with curiosity. "**Hangetsu** is a skill that I can't use every moment. Actually, today you were the first one to see me use it successfully.

"I tried to use that technique for a whole year now and practiced it every bit of free time at the dojo I got. It isn't because I only recently learned it that I can't use it. The speed when you move your arms in the more subtle slashes is fast enough for the muscles to start to tear, so physically, I probably can't use another one of those for the next month. For what it's worth Asuna, I'm sorry."

Asuna's eyes widened at the confession. Kirito's sad smile and apology lingered on his face before continuing. "I'm sorry that I didn't take you seriously. You're right, I told you that you are great and have lots of potential and I still believe that. I was just too scarred of hurting you or worse, losing you."

He put down a hand on Asuna's outstretched one that was still holding the sword that pierced his chest. "B-baka, I'm supposed to be angry at you." The girl muttered before pulling the rapier out of the chest and jumping backwards. Kirito winced as he felt the metal grind against his bones and a small groan of pain escaped his lips.

"Ne, Asuna. Why don't we have another spar? I promise that I'll be serious this time." Kirito offered. He browsed through the UI and came across the button for duel.

The brunette gave a small smile and clicked accept and the half-way option, "I'd like that Kirito-kun." The suffix was back onto his name again. Her face stopped smiling and was resettled into the serious glare that was only for fighting. Kirito seeing her look, narrowed his own eyes and locked them with hers. He sheathed his katana so that he was in the same ready stance as the last time, though this time he was infinitely more prepared.

Another silent second before the duel was called out and started. On an unspoken cue, the two activated their gap-closing skills and lunged forwards to face each other.

Kirito didn't hold anything back this time. Even though he said it would be a spar, he knew that Asuna would only want a full on fight to prove herself and reestablish her pride. The weapons she found was enough proof.

As the distance between the two closed, Asuna prepared to lunge at Kirito. The black-haired swordsman saw it coming and tried to dodge out of the way at the last second only to find out that he wouldn't make it in time. With haste, he brought up his katana and held it so that the edge would grind against Asuna's rapier and deflect it ever so slightly upwards above his shoulder.

The girl widened her eyes and quickly changed her plans to escape. As quick as she was, she couldn't fully avoid the strike from Kirito that came afterwards. The porcelain skin of her right cheek had a rather noticeable red gash caused by Kirito's blade grazing her body.

Kirito smirked at seeing that a part of his offensive had landed. Though it soon turned into a scowl as he felt a part of his left cheek throb and knew that Asuna must have grazed him as well. Readying themselves again, they both towards each other, their gap closers on CD.

Letting out a roar, Kirito readied his iron katana in his right hand with a powerful skill called **Cripple**. It was a DOT that also slowed down the enemies movements, it was probably the only time he would ever use it against an ally. The blade glowed a dirty crimson as it pulsed with power. Bringing it down diagonally, his goal was the target the area around Asuna's leg muscles so that her superior speed would be no use.

Unfortunately for Kirito, Asuna had already predicted this and simply moved to her right, avoiding the otherwise winning strike. Her rapier pulsed with golden energy as she unleashed a **Linear** towards Kirito who brought his sword up to parry the thrust. He was only partially successful as the strike was redirected lower and hit him in his left thigh.

Instead of wincing in pain like a normal person, Kirito smirked and Asuna's eyes widened knowing his intention. He simply wrapped his left hand around the blade and gripped it as hard as he could and damaging his digits in the process. Slashing upwards, he delivered a devastating cut across Asuna's stomach. His katana glowed crimson once more, this time it was for an oneshot skill, **Vorpal Strike**.

Seeing the skill, Asuna knew that if she was hit with such a skill, Kirito would have enough time to prepare a skill similar to **Mad Spiral **or **Hangetsu** when she was still down and finish the match. The duel was incredibly close as it was. Both of them were currently sitting around 90%, hardly any damage, but still an important statistic.

Instead of hitting her full on like Kirito wanted, Asuna moved, switching her grip on the rapier to a reverse one and attempting to spin her way out of the situation. The deadly skill though hit her on her side and created a large red zone of damage. The only plus was that Kirito had let go of her weapon and now she had it back in her hands.

Before she had any time to react, Kirito was once again in her face with his katana already drawn and in the middle of his **Sonic Leap **animation. Her eyes widened before she quickly used her **Sonic Flash** to escape the strike. Using the rest of her temporary speed boost, she came back to Kirito and pierced him through the left shoulder this time.

Kirito though wincing in pain, wasn't about to let Asuna get free hits on him. Though he couldn't grab the blade this time due to its location, Kirito could injure Asuna in the same way. He thrust out his blade at her elbow joint and was successful in piercing it. He saw the girl grit her teeth in pain and fought off the urge to stop right there and let her win. She said she wanted, no needed this.

Looking at both their HP bars, they were still dead even, both at a very low 60%, the next clean hit would surely make the striker the victor.

"Asuna."

"Yes, Kirito-kun."

"We're both pretty low-"

"Don't you dare stop it right now." The rapier user shouted.

"No, no. I was just going to suggest that since we're both low, let's finish it off with our best skills."

Asuna nodded as she retook her stance, her rapier now once again bathed in golden light. The buildup didn't stop there, rather her entire right arm was bathed in the warm light. All of her remaining energy and strength was to go into the last technique. It had to beat Kirito or at least match him in strength. She had the training, the skills, the talent, even Kirito said it himself. All that she needed to do now was strike.

Kirito was in a strange situation. Most of his skills that were in his upper tier and Asuna having deployed a one shot nuke was making his choices a bit strained. He racked his brain for a suitable finished, he really didn't want to use Vorpal strike again. He gave up and decided to just go with something that looked similar to what she was preparing. His sword turned a flame like orange as it extended and coiled around his limb.

Finishing their casts, the two of them looked at each other before rushing towards each other in the stereotypical epic clash format.

_'__**Liger's Maw**__' _

'**_Drake's Fang'_**

****Kirito's maw and Asuna's fang clashed for a brief moment in the center before the both of them finished on opposite sides with their backs facing each other.

Asuna looked down at her rapier, or what was left of it. The blade had been severed from Kirito's attack and would disappear into polygons in a few seconds. Surely enough, blue glass like particles exploded from the blade and swirled in the air around Asuna. She turned around to meet Kirito who was now fully facing her.

"I guess you won, Kirito-kun." She said a little dejectedly."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" He responded while pointing to the message that was displayed where the initiated the duel. 'DRAW' was spelled out in bolded capital letters, making Asuna's eyes widened.

"B-but, how? My weapon?" She sputtered. Kirito chuckled and held out the katana he used. As he did, the blade quickly dispersed into its own glass polygons and drifted off somewhere.

"Not as good as you thought I was huh?"

"I knew you held back Kirito-kun." He face-faulted at that. "I know you could have still used **Mad Spiral**." She said unhappily as she crossed her arms and pouted.

"But, if I used that, it would have ruined the epic final moment." He whined. Asuna let out a giggle at Kirito's behavior as he gave excuse after excuse on why he didn't use something else. Before he could say anything more, Asuna silenced him by pressing her lips against his in a short kiss.

"Consider that you're reward for helping me, Kirito-kun." Asuna said while giving a heartwarming smile towards the rave-haired swordsman. "Let's just go back for now, eh?" A short nod followed by picking up Kirito's beloved Shirokou from where it was leaning against a tree, the duo began to head towards their lodgings, both having bonded through crossing swords.

They weren't even halfway to their rented out home before Kirito quickly took her hand and led her high up into a tree branch. Asuna attempted to talk, but Kirito hushed her and promised to explain everything if it didn't work itself out. With a reluctant nod, she agreed to Kirito's condition. Though it was rather strange that he opted to hide instead of dealing with the problem or running away. Maybe his sensing skill had picked up something.

A minute later, the two of them could hear voices talking rather loudly through the forest as if they didn't know that it spawned some of the most annoying creatures known to mankind. The group of travelers was actually a trio of people. The only thing was that they weren't NPCs, they were actual players. They chatted rather amicably and occasionally cursing at the dense woodland, at least that's what Kirito heard using his advanced senses.

The three of them were still dressed in their ugly leather armor clearly from the first floor with its design and shoddy quality. What the hell were these people thinking about when they came up all the way to the sixteenth floor with just those equips? He looked over at Asuna, who appeared to be in a similar train of thought. He removed his gaze from his girlfriend and looked back at the trio of bickering players.

"…and I told you Klein, that we should have taken the other three with us to map the place." A man in typical leather armor with spiked hair said. He carried a polearm with a U-shaped head around.

The man apparently named Klein had red hair with a headband tied around it. A large katana was sheathed at his left hip, a righty if that was anything useful. He sighed and responded, "And I told you Issin, if we split up, we have a better chance of finding rare stuff. You know like treasure." The now named Issin just sweatdropped at Klein's half-assed answer.

While this was happening a man with a medieval glaive as a weapon, just stood by watching the two party members bicker like children. Eventually, Issin turned towards him

"Oi, Kuni. You agree with me right?" The man just stared at the ragey polearm user.

"I'd rather not get involved in this. You two can have your little lovers spat." Issin retorted and started raging all over again, creating massive sweatdrops on the heads of Kirito, Asuna, Klein and Kunimittz. All of the sudden, he stopped talking and readied his weapon. The other two of them fell into similar positions, ready to intercept the enemy if one were to pop out.

Through the bushes came a rather annoying enemy that was a pain in the ass to kill. It was a Lesser Earth Elemental a rather uncommon mob around the forest, but nevertheless annoying to kill. It was basically floating shards of rock weakly banded together. The thing can meld into the earth and strike from under a person when they least expected it. The duo hiding in the trees watched with narrowed eyes. If these guys just came from the first level then they would definitely need help destroying that thing. They would just have to wait for the right time to strike.

The three tried to fight the mob only for their efforts to yield no results. It wasn't that they lacked skill, it was just that the monster was meant to be taken out by a single devastating blow when it revealed itself, something that they didn't have as they were massively underequipped. Waiting for the right moment, Kirito saw Asuna begin to charge up her **Pierce** skill in order to momentarily immobilize the elemental construct.

The thing reemerged again and was immediately struck by a bolt of light to the surprise of the three players. Kirito and Asuna then both used their gap-closers to utterly eviscerate the earthy blob. Watching the thing disappear into polygons were the three still shocked party members looking awkwardly at the new duo. To Klein, one seemed like an exhibitionist as he wasn't wearing a shirt and left his cloak open. He did have to admit that the kid was built for his age though.

"Hey there, I'm Klein and I'm 21 and single. How about we get a drink." His approach to the other one wasn't nearly as professional or silent as the other one. Kirito fought the urge to slap his face and shake his head at the man's desperation. Asuna herself felt her eye twitch involuntarily.

"No. I'm already with Kirito-kun here." Hearing this, Klein's world seemed to shatter around him as he dropped to his knees and cried. The rest of the four all sweatdropped seeing the grown man then curl up into a fetus position and cry pathetically.

Regaining his composure a complete minute after Asuna's rejection, Klein looked as normal as ever and tried to forget the previous embarrassing ordeal.

"Klein-san was it?" Kirito asked.

"Yup that's me. I'm Klein, leader of the future Fuurinkazan and an amazing swordsman." Kirito's eye twitched.

"I was just wondering why you were out here with such low leveled gear."

At this, Klein had the decency to look sheepish. "Well you see, we were mapping out the place when we had to take a detour because someone stepped in a piece of bear shit." Issin looked a bit embarrassed at the statement.

Kirito just shook his head, "Well since you don't have real gear, I'll just give you some." He opened up a trade menu and initiated one with Klein. "Let's see, Valor's Edge, Hauberk of the Mad, Lightsteel Boots and Plated Gloves. That should serve you fine for the next few levels." Kirito muttered as he clicked accept. Klein looked at the quality of the items and widened his eyes. They were all tier 3 in quality or blues as the players called them.

The lowest of all the qualities, otherwise known as shitdrops, had their names colored in grey. They were either broken items or so heavily damaged they were virtually unusable. They were in tier 0 because not even the first tier deserved things like that. The next up were the common items, the ones that could be bought from NPCs and easily found by monster drops. They were average in every sense of the word from look to stats. They had white names and made up tier 1.

The next were greens and the first items that are better than average supposedly. Tier 2 drops are also known as uncommons or greens and are found rarely from normal mobs but drop quite extensively from field bosses. They are also quite often the reward to quests. They were only slightly better than whites.

The third quality were the blues or rare drops. They are rare to find in normal conditions hence the name. They drop rarely from field bosses and almost never from normal monsters. Dungeon bosses drop one and the main boss always drop at least four of these when they are killed. They are sufficiently better than the normal gear.

The fourth tier was the superior tier or purples. Currently, the only known way to most players on how to get these are to either craft them or get them as last hit rewards. They offer great stats compared to commons and are rather good pieces of gear. Up at the fifth were oranges or epics. The only people in the game to get an epic are Kirito and Asuna. Kirito constantly crafted tier 5 rings and other jewelry.

The sixth tier are the heroic weapons, weapons that only drop from the toughest of bosses. They are referred to as yellows. They are usually part of a set of items and give boosts when all of a set are equipped. Kirito had crafted a pair of matching rings for both him and Asuna as a present that were heroic tier, though they had taken a full week to even begin to create.

The last group was the legendary weapons. The only ones known to both Kirito and Asuna were the Shirokou that was currently in Kirito's possession and the legendary blade Kusanagi that was somewhere on one of the twentieth floors. They were the pinnacle of all equipable in the game and required weeks' worth of devotion to create for an average craftsman. Of course the best could probably make them in three days, but it was still a long time.

Kirito was giving them blues right now, things that should have been rare as hell to find.

"Yo, are you sure it's okay if we have these?" Klein asked.

Kirito blinked, "You're right." Kirito unaccepted the request and removed all the items from the menu. "Lion's Fang, Plate of the Conqueror, Gloves of the Martyr, Boots of the Undertaker. I believe these will be better for you I have some other gear in there for your friends as well. Klein's eyes now nearly bulged out of his sockets. The things he was presenting were all god damned oranges. How the hell was this kid so lucky?

He clicked accept and Kirito smiled as he did the same. Seeing that he was done, Kirito began to walk away with Asuna in tandem until Klein shouted to get their attention.

"Wait, at least allow me to buy you a drink. You helped us so much it's only natural." Kirito looked over at Asuna who nodded her head, signaling that it was okay.

"Sure, I'll take you up on that." Kirito responded and Klein smiled.

"Sweet. Oh yeah I never got you names." Another nod from Asuna saying that it was okay, she had already let his name slip.

"Kirito, my name is Kirito and this is Asuna, my girlfriend. Nice to meet you Klein."

"Alright, let's go back to town guys!" Klein shouted as the group of misfits began to move.


End file.
